Mikael's Umbrella: Chapter 7

In the late evening sun, two figures were illuminated, so that only the silhouettes were visible. There was a shorter one, probably a girl, with long hair down to her waist. The other was tall, muscular, and much thicker, most likely a man. The two were surrounded by leaves on three of the sides, as if the figures were in a picture and the leaves were the border.
"Come on, hurry," said the smaller of the two to the larger without looking at him.
That was apparently the wrong thing to say. The larger grabbed the smaller by the shoulders and shook her. "We don't have to hurry!" he said, or rather, growled. There was a static noise here, blocking out some of his next phrase, and then... "... don't have to hurry!"
"Oh, well," said the smaller, and turned to what seemed to be dust, that blew away in the wind.

*  *  *

The hologram shattered like glass.

Mikael had been watching this. It had projected from the disk, and it all seemed very strange. But even so, Mikael realized three things.

One: The place pictured in the hologram was Kittero Park.

Two: The sky was orange in the hologram, which meant...what?

Three: The people in the hologram looked a whole lot like Mr. Leiber and Kallia.
But just as he thought that, he ran out of air.

*  *  *

El Paros was right next door to the hotel. Mariah knew she had to go there, she just knew it.

"Mom, let's go to El Paros for dinner," Mariah suggested.

"Okay, but you go alone, and it's up to you to get the reservation," Mariah's mom said.

Mariah was still sopping wet. She took her potion and tucked into her coat. Then she headed to her fancy bathroom to take a shower. She was off with a hotel bunch of towels tied neatly in a pink ribbon when a strange thing happened.
A slat opened in the ceiling above, and out dropped a disk. It was a clunky flat disk, clunky in the way of an old laptop. As Mariah threw on some clothes, she accidentally touched the disk, and then bad things started to happen to her.

Mikael's Umbrella: Chapter 1

The rain was pouring on the dark London street. People with umbrellas hoisted over their heads splashed around, eager to get to their next location. Cars had their blinding headlights on. Mikael stared dismally out from under his own umbrella and wrapped his light sweater around his shivering body. He peered around the rainy city square. No one else seemed to be having the same temperature problem. But then again, no one else had worn only a light sweater, T-shirt, and shorts.
Mikael passed by Amete Filming Studio. He usually liked to sneak a look in the window, to see what movie was currently being filmed.Today was different. It was as cold as being stuck in the freezer, Mikael thought, taking a quick look in the restaurant next door.
The noise of pop music magnified 100 times awakened him to his senses. A sleek panther-black limousine was cruising by, stop-sign-sized speakers pumping out rhythms. It stopped right in front of Amete Filming Studio. Curious, Mikael joined the queue of people crowding around the sparkling doors. "Back, back," he heard someone say, and then the doors opened.