The girl who borrowed the moon

Every night at exactly midnight, Mira heard someone knocking on her window.
Three knocks.
Always three.
The strange part was that Mira lived on the seventh floor.
One night, she finally opened it.
Outside was a tiny silver door floating in the air.
She touched it.
The door opened.
Beyond it was a staircase made of moonlight, stretching endlessly into the sky.
At the top stood a little old woman wearing a coat covered in stars.
“You’re late,” she said.
“For what?”
“To return the moon.”
Mira looked behind her.
The moon was missing.
The entire city below was dark.
“I didn’t take it!”
The old woman pointed at Mira’s pocket.
Inside was a small glowing stone.
Mira suddenly remembered finding it beside her bed that morning.
“What is this?”
“The moon’s heart,” the woman whispered. “Someone stole it, and without it, the moon will disappear forever.”
They followed a trail of silver footprints across the clouds until they reached an enormous black castle.
Inside, a shadow creature guarded a glass cage.
Mira was terrified, but she stepped forward anyway.
“Why did you steal it?”
The creature lowered its head.
he creature lowered its head.
“Because nobody ever looked at me.”
Mira understood.
She opened the cage.
The creature disappeared into the moonlight.
The moon returned to the sky.
The next night, Mira looked out her window.
For the first time, the moon seemed to be smiling.
And beside it was one tiny new star.
It looked strangely familiar.