It was a battered old book, bound in red leather. When Mortimer was twelve years old, he found the book in his father’s library. When the rest of his large, old house was covered in darkness, he took the book to his bedroom to read by candlelight. The clock ticked in the hall below and the sea roared outside.

Mortimer was fascinated by the battered old book. It contained a story called the ‘Midnight Express’. There was an illustration on page fifty, which threatened him for some unknown reason. The illustration showed an empty railway platform at night lit by a dull, yellow lamp. A single man stood under the lamp, his face turned towards the black mouth of a tunnel.

Elara lived in a small cottage at the edge of a quiet village. Every night, she would sit by her window and watch the stars. She loved the sky. She often wondered where the stars went during the day. “Perhaps they are like lost children,” she thought, “and the sun is their mother looking for them.” One night, a bright star seemed to fall from the sky. It landed in the forest nearby. Elara, being a brave and curious girl, decided to find it. She took a lantern and walked into the dark woods, her heart beating with a mix of fear and excitement. She searched for hours but found nothing. Disappointed, she returned home, only to see the brightest star of all twinkling right above her cottage, as if it was winking at her.