In an instant, her body had been swallowed up into the light and was moving through a tunnel of chilled air. She tried calling her mother, but no voice emerged.

She was being dragged somewhere far away. Up or straight ahead, she couldn’t tell.

‘HEY YOU, WAKE UP!’

The first sensation was of a cold floor beneath her cheek.

She had a splitting headache, and her mouth and throat were parched. Kokoro heard the voice again, but couldn’t lift her head.

‘Come on, wake up.’

A girl’s voice, a girl from the lower grades of elementary school by the sound of it.

Kokoro didn’t know anyone that age. She shook her head, blinked, and sat up. She turned to look in the direction of the voice and gasped.

A weird-looking child was standing there, hand on hip.

‘Are you awake now? Kokoro Anzai-chan?’

She was looking at the face of – a wolf.

The girl was wearing the sort of wolf mask usually found at temple festivals.

She was wearing an outfit that clashed with the wolf mask – a pink, lace-trimmed dress, the kind a girl would wear to her own piano recital, or to a wedding. She was like a live version of a Rika-chan doll.

And she – knows my name.

Kokoro’s eyes darted around.

Where am I?

The shining emerald floor reminded her of something from The Wizard of Oz.

She felt perhaps she was in an anime, or in a stage play. Then she noticed a dark shape looming over her. She looked up and took a huge, deep breath. Her hand flew to her mouth.

She seemed to be in some sort of castle. A castle from a Western fairy tale, with a magnificent gate.

‘Congratulaaations!’ a voice sang. Behind the mask, Kokoro couldn’t read the little girl’s expression, or see her lips move.

‘Kokoro Anzai-san, you have the honour of being a guest in this castle!’ She spread her arms out wide and spun around.

The magnificent iron gate began to creak open.

KOKORO’S MIND WENT BLANK WITH fear. She had to get out.

The wolf girl continued to gaze at her, inscrutably. Kokoro hoped that, if this was some sort of dream, then the next time she looked, the girl would have vanished.

Something caught the edge of her vision. Kokoro slowly turned around: a mirror on the wall was shining.

Not the same oval-shaped mirror as the one in her bedroom, though it seemed a similar size. Its frame was ringed with multi-coloured, teardrop-shaped stones. Kokoro scampered towards it. This mirror must surely connect up with her room, and if only she could pass through it, she might be able to go back.

Kokoro suddenly felt the weight of the little wolf girl clinging to her back, tackling her from behind with her spindly limbs. The force of her charge sent Kokoro tumbling face first back on to the emerald-coloured floor.