The last train had gone by the time Ellie reached the platform. The station lights buzzed like trapped insects, throwing a thin yellow film over the empty benches. Somewhere beyond the car park, a dog barked twice and gave up. She sat. The cold came up through the metal seat and settled in her bones, patient as a debt collector.
On the far wall, a poster for a summer festival peeled at one corner: laughing faces, a blue sky, the words 'You belong here' in letters the colour of mangoes. Ellie looked at it for a long time. Then she pulled her sleeves down over her hands, checked her phone (eleven per cent, no messages) and watched the timetable click over to tomorrow.
(Original passage written for this worksheet.)