"Authorities have called it an act of domestic terrorism citing an extremist group who are against the proposed demolishing of abandoned South London streets to expand the Underground Rail."<br/><br/>Jamie drummed his hands in some manner of haphazard rhythm on the large stretch of desk in front of him, tuning in and out of the news broadcast and reclining in his chair. The most interesting part of his job was the fact that it was actually not interesting in the slightest. Libraries were becoming less and less frequented these days since books were so easily attainable online, so for the most part his days were dull and mundane. And Jamie didn't mind that at all really since it meant that he could watch the small television at the end of the table, which he normally enjoyed quite a bit. But this particular news story made him uneasy, and between all the news channels it had practically been playing<span style="font-style: italic">all day</span>.<br/><br/>"Weird, right?" The only other librarian at the desk, and his best friend, Darren. A nice enough man, but he really needed to stop asking that question every time the story replayed.<br/><br/>Jamie merely hummed in response, vaguely listening to the statement from the Metropolitan Police. "I wish you would change the channel. This is nothing we haven't heard a hundred times tonight," he said. He propped an elbow up on the table, cupping his chin in one hand and holding a pen in the other. The button was turned toward the table, and Jamie pushed it down and let it bounce back up only to fall back down to the desk with a small clatter. "I'm pretty sure you know that officer's entire speech by heart by now."<br/><br/>"I'm just saying-," Darren started, and Jamie gave a rather dramatic groan of despair as he let his head fall to the desk, long hair pooling around him. He heard Darren huff in agitation, but unfortunately that didn't exactly deter him from continuing. "I'm just<span style="font-style: italic">saying</span>that it seems a bit too weird that only one car was affected. One out of- what was it- twelve? Those cars hold a lot of people, Jamie. What would this group even do with them?"<br/><br/>Jamie lifted his head just enough to be heard. "Hold them for ransom? Kill them? Make them sit through another one of your weird theories?" he guessed, tapping a finger on the desk for each reason he listed. Darren disregarded his comment with a resigned<span style="font-style: italic">tsk</span>and turned back to the television. Jamie rolled his eyes and sat up straight again. "Alright, what does the great Darren Thompson think happened to the passengers, then?"<br/><br/>Darren shot him a look that Jamie was sure was meant to be threatening, but it really wasn't. "He thinks that the not-so-great James McGuire needs to shut the hell up." Jamie laughed at that and spun his chair around to face him, gesturing with a wave of his hand for Darren to go on. After a moment, Darren gave up the silent treatment as Jamie knew he would. The man could never resist talking about his thoughts on something, no matter what it was. "There has to be something that they're not telling us in the news. I mean, they had to have found<span style="font-style: italic">something</span>."<br/><br/>"Except they didn't."<br/><br/>"They<span style="font-style: italic">had</span>to. It doesn't make sense. Say this group unloaded all the passengers of that car onto the railway. Fine. But then what? Where did they go?" he asked, waving his arms for a bit of extra emphasis. "They could have kept marching on the tracks, but they could only do that for so long before they reached another station. And if they did reach another station, I'd like to think that someone would notice a terrorist group leading a bunch of people on foot through the tracks."<br/><br/>Jamie nodded slowly, much the way you would if you were listening to the nonsensical ramblings of an extremely annoying five-year-old. "So, what are you getting at, then? That they actually vanished? Like, disappeared into thin air?"<br/><br/>"That's the only possible explanation. You can't abduct an entire mass of people without someone noticing something."<br/><br/>Jamie rolled his eyes and gave a slight shake of his head. "You're eccentric," he dismissed, pulling his hair back into a ponytail. "It's a half-hour til close, and we're wasting time talking about this."<br/><br/>Thankfully Darren relented, throwing his hands up in a defensive gesture and turning off the television. Darren disappeared into the file room and with a bit of reluctance, Jamie pushed his chair away from the table and stood, stretching his arms into the air with a groan. He busied himself in organizing the papers that had been strewn across the desk throughout the day. He and Darren were both very competent at what they did.. they just weren't exactly neat about it. More often than not, by the end of the day they wound up with order requests mixed between collection development reports. It could only be described as a miracle that they managed to get it all cleaned up and sorted out each night.<br/><br/>"...a train car arrived today at Amersham station with all its passengers missing. The train had been full when it left a station earlier in the morning and only one of the twelve cars was affected by the mysterious disappearance. "<br/><br/>Jamie jumped at the sudden sound and clutched a few papers to his chest, feeling his heart race and then slow down. Without dignifying it without so much as turning, Jamie rolled his eyes and laid the papers on the desk, trying to force them to lay flat from where he had wrinkled them. "Very funny, Dare, now turn it<span style="font-style: italic">off</span>. We don't have time for this." The woman's voice was cut off, and Jamie was greeted with silence. Which meant that Darren had taken to ignoring him now, but at least he'd been courteous enough to turn the television off again. "<span style="font-style: italic">Thank</span>you."<br/><br/>"You say something, Jay?" Jamie turned around on his heel, and saw Darren poke his head out from the file room. "Earth to Jamie. What did you say?"<br/><br/>Jamie stared at him with confusion and then turned his eyes to the television. He shook his head slowly at first, then quick with dismissal. "Nothing. I think I'm just tired," he said, leaning backward against the desk and tapping his nails on the wood. He stood in contemplation a moment before forcing it to the back of his mind. "Hey, hurry up so we can get out of here."<br/><br/>They had managed to close down the library on time tonight, a rare occurrence between the two of them. They stood in front of locked doors, Darren lighting a cigarette and Jamie drowning in a black coat that about two or three sizes too big for him. Once his cigarette was lit, Darren took a long drag and shoved his lighter back into his pocket. "See you tomorrow, man." He gave Jamie a firm clap on the shoulder and walked to his car, leaving Jamie to his thoughts. He listened to the car door slam and the engine roar to life, and just like that he was alone. He watched the car get smaller and smaller, and for a moment he wished for the world that he had asked for a ride home.<br/><br/>Because not even a minute later, he found himself walking down Chiltern Avenue as he normally did, but he was going in the opposite direction of his home - he was going in the direction of the Amersham station.