Jagger [English version]

Chapter 1: Light and Darkness

The rain was pouring down on the clock tower and the rooftops of the city of Newston. The clouds could only be noticed when the moon cast its light on them, counteracting their gray with the dark black of the night. The hands seemed to move much slower than normal in the eyes of those that were absently observing the clock, which is located more or less in the center of the metropolis. Yet, despite the vast array of lights and the distant sound of a police siren, the city was eerily silent.

A woman, who was walking under the torrent of water, covered her face with her coat and quickened her steps as she felt a chill, which was provoked by the feeling of loneliness; a deeply misleading feeling since she was not alone. Someone could see her.

That someone was meditating on the top of the clock tower, completely unconcerned by the incessant rain that the skies threw down.

His hair was jet black, much like that night; his eyes were brown and piercing, as if he could see right through a person; his body was lean, agile, and lethal, like a machine which was perfectly capable of ending a life. His name was Jagger Black. Few people were aware of his existence, and even fewer knew what he was capable of.

Jagger had a strong and severe look; his hands were always inside his pockets so he could go unnoticed; and his lips hadn't smiled in a while.

The subject observed the girl who was running with difficulty on the soaked sidewalk. He had a bad feeling and decided that it would be best to follow her.

Suddenly, the girl disappeared from his field of vision, instantaneously crossing into an alley located between Mason & Mason and Trevor's florists, where the lights had long since stopped working except for the dim illumination of a lantern that was right in the middle of the passageway.

Without changing the expression on his face, he took a step into the void and let his body descend a hundred feet in free fall until his feet violently hit the soaked concrete, which gave way and broke from the force of the impact. Unaware of this, Jagger began to walk toward the alley where the woman was.

The moment he got to the side of Mason & Mason, he heard a ragged gasp and a female voice. He paused for a moment to listen.

"Please don't hurt me!" The young woman exclaimed with desperation, and her voice cracked because of her effort not to burst into tears. "Please," she added weakly, while sarcastic and ruthless laughter silenced her.

"What shall we do with her?" asked a mocking male voice.

"We have to take her with us," answered another, showing a dark smile.

"She's quite pretty," added a third voice with an emotion more dangerous than the first. "How much do you think they will pay us for her?"

The woman closed her eyes to pray that it was all a nightmare, and suddenly she heard three loud knocks. She opened her eyes wide and found her attackers nailed to the opposite wall inside a hole that wasn't there before, where the dust of the rubble that had not yet been washed away by the rain continued to float. She looked to her right for an explanation as to what had just happened, and she caught a glimpse of a man with his hands in his pockets turning around at the end of the alley. She looked again at the bodies of the three men who had been used as a battering ram and fear paralyzed her for a few seconds until she thought of the individual she had seen and wondered if he had had something to do with it.

Her question stayed in her head, begging her to get up, to hurry to the end of the alley, and head in the same direction the man had taken. However, she stopped when she looked at the long, empty street. She found it strange that someone could walk so fast, but she preferred not to investigate too much and wanted to return to her house as soon as possible. She ran for two more blocks and didn't slow down until she found herself in front of a narrow house that had a jacaranda tree out front and a sign on the front door that read "Glad You've Returned."

"Alive," she added ironically to herself as she read the sign.

She opened the door, went inside, and quickly closed it behind her. She leaned in the doorway for a moment, sighing in the despondency of so many sudden and varied emotions. She took off her coat, threw it on the coffee-colored sofa, and turned on all the lights she could before going up to the second floor, where there was only one door at the bottom of the stairs, which led to her room. She turned on the lamp in the room and on the bedside table before locking the door and hurrying into the bathroom. She turned on the hot water and, as she finished removing her blouse, she stepped into the shower, allowing her body temperature to rise as the drops of water slid down her skin. When she turned off the faucet, images of what had happened that night assaulted her brain, causing exhaustion and confusion to take hold of her.

She had a hard time structuring her thoughts and there were some things in her head that didn't make sense. She had been so scared that she even thought that the men who attacked her had red eyes that glowed in the dark.

"Was that real?" She wondered as she pressed her hand to her forehead due to the headache that was beginning to hurt her, and she assumed it was the first time she had heard her own voice since she had begged for her life to those criminals.

The more she analyzed the situation, the more surreal it seemed to her, and she wasn't sure if she should tell anyone.

If that man hadn't shown up... though she couldn't be sure he had saved her. After all, it was impossible for a person to possess such strength. Perhaps that part of the wall was much weaker than the others, and that individual had accidentally crushed them right there. However, that didn't explain how he disappeared so quickly, without even making sure she was okay...

Fleetingly, her gratitude turned to disappointment. Perhaps the man was just paying off a debt to those vandals; perhaps, what happened had nothing to do with her.

Even so, she had only kept her eyes closed for less than ten seconds.

How is it that he was able to knock out three men like that and walk away so calmly a split second later?

No matter how she looked at it, it was very strange.

She came out of the bathroom and got dressedabsentmindedly as she thought about the mysterious savior. Although she did notknow the reason why she had been rescued, that person still intrigued her bythe way he walked, or floated, on the sidewalk, with his hands in his pocketsand that carefree step... in complete solitude and he did not seem to care.