Chapter 3

At dinner, Mikael and his sister were alone. His parents were often late from work, so that was not an unusual situation. He'd ordered pizza from Liam's Pizzeria with the money his parents had left on the table as usual. Suddenly he looked out the window and saw Mariah standing outside with an umbrella held over her head. For a moment, they locked eyes, and Mariah made a gesture that clearly meant "good-bye." Mikael returned the gesture. Then Mariah hurried away.
"Why did you do that?" his sister asked.
"Because," said Mikael. Strangely enough, he didn't want anyone to know about Mariah.

           *  *  *

Mariah wished, for what seemed like the billionth time, that she could go to the hotel pool.

It was supposed to be a cold day, but stuck inside her heated hotel room, Mariah was sweltering.

She stuck her head into the living room, where her mother and her older sister were doing a read-through of the script for the latest movie, The Angel Files. "Can I go to the pool?" she asked, forgetting all of her mother's grammar lessons.
Her mother sighed and, surprisingly, threw up her hands in defeat. "Okay, Mariah, you may go to the pool," she said, sounding tired, and, well, defeated. "Remember to be back by 7:00 for dinner."

"I will," promised Mariah, relieved.
She threw on her bathing suit, grabbed a random towel off the rack, and headed down in the elevator, which was completely transparent and light up. She watched the hotel floor swoosh closer and closer, faster and faster, thinking she was going to crash, but it stopped just in time, and Mariah stepped out on the cool glass floor and headed toward the pool.
Mariah felt safe in the pool. Her swimming strokes were clean and practiced, and even her butterfly had a sense of dignity to it. Today there was no one else in the pool. Mariah dove in the cool water, thinking if that if she was a child of Poseidon, she wouldn't be surprised.
When she finally came up for air, a sight made her screech and fall backwards into the water.
There was a man cloaked in purple sitting under one of the showers. In his hands were sixteen human bones.

Mikael's Umbrella: Chapter 2: Bellatae is first introduced to the public!

The first out was a glamorous girl. She wore a sleeveless blood-red dress that sparkled with her every move."Way too inappropriate for the weather," he heard someone mutter. She was also wearing jeweled pink sunglasses and sported a head of blond curls. In short, she took Mikael's breath away.
Following the girl were two adults with expressions of pride on their faces. The girl's parents, Mikael supposed. Then there came an angry-faced girl with mousey brown hair. She was the only one in the group who was wearing regular clothes. Everyone went inside the glittering studio except this girl. 
As the people drifted away, Mikael fingered the old, well-worn key in his pocket. The wizard Bellatae had given it to him in exchange for a sample of pizza, Mikael's favorite food. Bellatae had promised that the key would one day grow enough to fit the lock in the basement of Mikael's apartment. The basement, according to Bellatae, was a tunnel to a secret underground world. 
"Hi."
The once-angry girl was in front of him. Surprised, Mikael took a step back.
"I'm Mariah," she said. "My sister's a movie star, and our parents drag us all over to make exotic movies." Unlike many of the people he'd met in London, Mariah didn't have a British accent.
"I'm Mikael," Mikael said. "I play baseball." It seemed like a worthless piece of information compared to Mariah's. "Well, bye."
"Where are you going?" demanded Mariah, but Mikael was already off, size 8 feet pounding on the soaked ground.