Jhun Thai O: The Fall Of Thomas Brady

Jhun Thai 0: Chapter 2

Thomas Brady was late coming into work the next day. It was not that he was tired from drinking last night, or the difficult fight he had with the fighter from Thailand. It was because he could not sleep. The image of the lady in the dark dress burned deeply in his mind. He could still see her in his minds eye standing high on the roof of the Potteries Shopping Centre. He knew the building itself stood over fifty feet and it would have been impossible for her to even be that high up. The building had been shut so there was no way she could have entered it and there were no ladders to climb to the top. Even if she had managed to get up onto the roof, the speed at which she did it was just not possible. Thomas knew it would be impossible for her to get that high up in such a short span of time when he had only just went after her a few minutes after she had left Weatherspoons.

He began wondering whether it was just a trick of his mind. Probably the effect of booze on his brain. But he had not drunk too much that night. He even hypothesized that it might have been a blow to his brain inflicted by the opponent he fought the same night. Thing was, he had endured much tougher fights in the squared circle and never once hallucinated because of it. His most crazy assumption was that the woman somehow had a twin sister. But that in itself raised more questions than answers like...

What was she doing on the roof in the first place?

Was she planning to jump?

And why would she be dressed the same?

It messed with Thomas's head and by the time morning came about, he felt far worse for wear than coming out of one of his bouts in the ring. He had stumbled lazily out of bed, put on a creased pair of black trousers and a stained shirt with a tie that did not even go with it, before washing away any last remants of sleep from his eyes with cold water. He ate half a toast and some coffee before setting off to work.

His workplace was near Trentham on a small industrial estate just a mile off a busy main road. He worked as a data input clerk at a small company called SynTech Ltd, a company that provided IT support to other businesses throughout Staffordshire. It paid good money though the job was quite boring to Thomas. He hated desk jobs and an office environment. It felt cramped, almost claustraphobic and he could not stand any of the gossip and back chatter that always comes with working in this particular environment. His place was in the ring and it was there where he felt like a god. Here, he was just an average Joe working for an average wage to stupid and pointless deadlines with irritating people who always made it an habit to sit on their pity pots, moaning and complaining about other people in the workplace. It almost drove him to complete distraction, though he always kept himself sane by dreaming about his next upcoming fight and the wild partying that accompanied it straight after.

His boss was non too pleased by his lateness and tired frame of mind.

"I can understand that you have quite a busy and hectic lifestyle outside these company walls," his boss told him. "But here, I expect you to fulfil your duties that we pay you to do! Do I make myself clear Mr Brady?"

Thomas apologised though deep in his mind, he pictured himself punching his bosses lights out. It made him chuckle to himself at the though and helped him get through the day. His two hungover mates, Grant and Hugo did ask him during lunch time what had happened last night..

"Saw you leave the pub in quite a hurry," commented Hugo as they sat in the canteen. "Your brother Travis told us you went after some bird in a black dress".

Thomas sighed to himself as he tucked into his pot noodle meal. "He sure has a big mouth," he replied. "I'll kick his ass tonight".

"Aw cmon!" said Grant, finishing his tenth coffee of the day, despite the dark bags under his eyes. "Don't take it personally! I saw that bird myself last night before you and Travis arrived. Man, she was fit. Looked straight at me and I just kinda froze. Those eyes. They were so deep".