Humphrey stifled a yawn and edged his hand towards the plate of biscuits again. Surely, one more wouldn’t hurt.

His eyes flitted up at the oversized clock that hung on the mahogany-paneled wall and groaned inwardly. Why did time seem to slow to snails’ pace whenever the board congregated like this?

“Good, good! Let’s move onto the next item on the agenda then,” said Witherby as he shuffled his papers and peered over his wire-rimmed spectacles. Humphrey clenched his jaw. Witherby’s glasses were wonky. Why didn’t the man ever take the care to adjust his glasses?

Humphrey’s wiry fingers surreptitiously reached for the last chocolate biscuit on the plate. At least there were biscuits. Biscuits always made the time go faster.

He was biting into the chocolate biscuit when, all of a sudden, the door burst open. A red-cheeked Arthur ran into the room, holding on to the door-knob to stop himself from colliding with the huge mahogany meeting table that Humphrey and his six other colleagues sat at.

“She’s done it!” Arthur gasped out, as he bent over panting, “She’s… done it!”

The full attention of the room snapped to the ruddy cheeked, panting young man as he grasped his stomach and winced. “Ouch. Stitch…” he said, gesturing to his midriff.

“Done… what?” Witherby said with a frown, peering over his spectacles that were now dangling precariously near the edge of his nose.

“The portal!” Arthur said through gulps of breath, with a wide grin. “I ran over from the lab as soon as I could. She’s done it!”

Humphrey’s eyes narrowed. Surely not...

"What do you mean, 'done' it?" he said, cautiously putting his biscuit back down on the table.

"The portal! It's working! We can finally access the Sapphire Bridge again. You can see it clearly! Come, come!" Arthur said, barely containing himself with excitement.

An excitement filled the room as Humphrey's other colleagues began to exclaim with glee, rising from their seats. But Humphrey? No. Humphrey remained seated as he held his breath.

This wasn't good.

If they could access the Sapphire Bridge again, then they'd be able to access the High Meadows Asylum. Well... they would if they looked hard enough. And that wouldn't do. For that is where he hid *her*.

And no-one could find her. *Have* her.

So he guessed it was time to end that. It was unfortunate, of course, as he'd grown fond of her. But sometimes you have to make tough decisions, for she was more risky to him *alive* than she was *dead*.