A/N: Thank you my buddy Jarod. Without your ideas, this story wouldn't exist. Credit goes to Jarod for the original basic plot before I edited and rewrote most of it. I hope you all enjoy it! :D
Chapter 1- As the Rain Poured
There was silence in the frigid midnight air as a light drizzle caused an ominous gloom. Droplets of water noislessly ran from the red-tinted maple leaves of Autumn. Warmly colored foliage drifted toward the slippery blades of soaked grass. On a near by Oak tree, teddy bear brown acorns of many plump yet various sizes plummeted to their squirrely demise. An occasional light tapping noise was the only sound; one of the many acorns slightly missing a rusted blue-black trash can and instead landing with a miniscule cracking noise against a fairly new wooden bench with an iron backing and legs. It was a peaceful hour in late September, yet for reasons unknown to a young man passing by the old Oak tree, the peculiar silence was increasingly unnerving.
After a scrumptious dinner at the local bar owned by one of his friends that went by the name of Rachel, (She had been in the witness protection program after graduating, she claimed, but it wasn't believed by the others) their group headed back to the hotel they were staying at. The young boy, Noah, wanted to 'check out the town', when secretly, he wanted to look into the odd feeling in his stomach. Due to the rain, he had been bothered by one of his childhood sweethearts to bring his umbrella and parka. No grumbling was aloud and besides, there wasn't much thought or discussion given to it for him to object to the idea. That was where he came to rest upon the bench beside the trash can. He gave no notice to the ancient Oak tree and was deep in thought when the ping of an acorn finally landed in the grungy trash can. A clang of metal startled Noah, but soon he found himself drifting off into a lovely snooze, most likely from the alcohol in him, though he wasn't that drunken at all, just very, very tired. His eyelids began to shut, and he almost completely drifted off...
A desperate scream came from the distance, not too far off. In fact it sounded like it had rung out from a nearby ally. Suddenly Noah was startled awake in the increasingly heavier rain. Flinging his umbrella down onto the walkway, he charged off toward the sound. Left behind, his blue umbrella seemed to skid around in melancholy circles. Acorns continued to fall, and the park was unfazed by Noah's appearance and rather sudden disappearance. Everything became still aside from the one lonely umbrella, skidding in the pouring rain.
Noah and a decent amount of his closer High School friends had come to the big apple for their reunion. It was Noah who had come up with the Idea to come to New York, all expenses paid of course. The four and a half-star hotel was cheap for such a breathtaking building. Compared to gas prices of the past, they were a lot cheaper recently, so to the reunion group, it was the perfect time to go. They had lucked out with Rachel owning the bar. Despite all of this, the events of tonight were definitely not what he had hoped for on their first night out on the town. The scream had sounded horribly familiar. Whoever it belonged to was male, he could tell that much. To Noah it was just like in all the movies. He only hoped it wasn't just like in all the horror movies.
With his arms pumping at his sides, Noah dashed down the abandoned streets, sloshing and stomping through the puddles (being thankful they weren't mud puddles to slow him down), panting as he hopefully came closer and closer towards the source of the scream. Sub-consciously, he reached into the pocket of his parka where his cell- it was gone. Of course he had left his cell phone on the table by the door. That was just great, wasn't it? Of all the times to not have your cell phone, did it really have to be now? Seriously? Finally Noah despairingly reached the end of the alley he was positive the sound had come from. On tip-toe, he cautiously approached. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw someone, or maybe even something, moving in the shadows, but luckily it didn't appear to take any notice of him sneaking toward a large lump leaning next to a rotten dumpster. Still extremely carefully, he side-stepped in the shadows into the alley.
That was where he found his friend Hunter, lying dead in the alley. Noah immediately took notice that he had a bunch of messy bullet holes that gushed dark red to form a pile of blood around his chest, and a heavy duty rope tied in a tight knot around his neck. This had clearly been a violent homicide. Next to Hunter's cold, dead, body, was a note typed in a serious font that was unrecognizable. All that it read was "Here's to the good times.", with a smiley face drawn across the bottom of the page clearly written in Hunter's own blood. Disgustingly, Noah felt the blood ooze between his fingers as a shaking cold hand held the note up. Noah didn't even notice that he was drenched from head to toe and he couldn't tell if he was shivering from the sight of his friend or the freezing clothes plastered to his skin. Apparently his parka hadn't done any good for warmth or even keeping him dry. The note and the dead body had disgusted him. It wreaked of moldy pizza with anchovies. Either that, or the trash can did, but details didn't matter to Noah right now. He could tell that this was a fresh murder, the blood was still wet and as warm as it could be in such low temperatures. Could that mysterious thing in the alley have been the murderer? A part of him wanted to find out, but the other part was too afraid. For his life and everyone else that he knew. There was a murderer on the loose, and that person was crazy. Hastily, Noah ran back to the hotel the way he came, leaving the dead body beside the dumpster. When he headed back through the park, his umbrella was long gone and forgotten.
Noah and his old childhood friend, Lydia, were trained in a top-secret faciluty in Germany, as their top spies. Both of the students of the strict academy had recieved the highest marks. 'Rachel' had been one of the lower ranking agents, and one of Lydia's closest friends. Rachel and Noah had retired from their dangerous career very close to when they started, moving back to America. Shortly after this, Noah joined the secret service as their best worker, which is where he got his money to fund the New York trip. Rachel had gone through a few rough patches in her life then supposedly joined the witness protection program. What no one knew was that she had kept secret contact with Lydia until a few years ago. Lydia however, stayed in Germany for much more training, claiming to Noah that she would also leave the academy and secret faciluty shortly after Noah did, lying to him. So shortly after she lost contact with M- 'Rachel', Lydia searched for a home in New York, near the last of Rachel's known locations. As soon as she got Noah's email, she prepared to put 'the plan' to action, but never RSVP'ed to his request. Now the time had finally come for Lydia to test just what she had learned in the previous years no matter what the cost was or who it affected...