I must be hoping for something, she thought vaguely as she drifted off.

You could be on the brink of an adventure, and you’re telling me you really don’t care? the little wolf girl had said, and truthfully Kokoro was hoping for something – at least a little. Hoping that this would be the beginning of something special.

The Chronicles of Narnia, which sat in the bookcase downstairs, crept into her mind. How could a portal into a different world not be appealing?

Maybe she shouldn’t have run away. She may have wasted an opportunity. Of course, she would have preferred it if a rabbit had shown her around, like in Alice in Wonderland, not some shrill girl in a wolf mask.

She was beginning to feel expectant. So what did she want to happen, anyway? Now that the mirror wasn’t glowing any more, she suddenly began to regret what she’d done.

What if …

What if the mirror started to shine again?

Then she might decide to enter it one last time.

With these thoughts in mind, she melted into sleep.

THE NEXT MORNING, THE MIRROR still wasn’t shining.

Feeling a bit bolder, she gently turned it around to face her, but all she could see was her own reflection – in her PJs, with her messy bed-head hair.

As usual, Kokoro had breakfast with her mum before she left for work; she then washed up, before heading back upstairs. She would often spend the entire day in her PJs, but today she decided to change and even made an attempt to tidy her hair.

At nine o’clock the mirror began to shine.

It glittered like a pool of water reflecting the sunlight.

Breathing slowly, she reached out and slipped her hand inside. She pushed further until her whole body had been sucked in.

Her vision turned a dazzling yellow, and then white, as she passed into the other world.

INSTEAD OF THE EMERALD-GREEN FLOOR and the mighty gate of the previous visit, what she saw as her vision gradually cleared were two staircases and a large grandfather clock above them.

She blinked slowly.

It looked like the set for a Hollywood film: a grand foyer inside a mansion, with thick carpeted stairs like the ones Cinderella ran down in the film.

The staircases led up to a landing with the tall grandfather clock halfway along. Inside it, a large pendulum swung gently back and forth, revealing a sun and moon design.

Kokoro knew it – this was exactly the same castle she’d been to the previous day.

A group of people were gathered at the bottom between the staircases. She blinked at them in astonishment. They stared back in silence.

There were seven of them, including Kokoro. They appeared to be of a similar age.

‘So you came.’