Hello Readers! If you happened to select to read this story without reading the original first, don't read this! Because it will reveal the ending/plot of the first book, The City Of Masks. So don't continue on unless you want the first book (and possibly the series) ruined. Thank You! Now to the story...

Chapter 22

Reunited

It was mid-day, and Lucien was sitting in Arianna's new room. As the Duchessa of Bellezza, she now lived in the palace. Lucien was staring into the dancing flames of the fire when Rodolfo came through the secret passage. Lucien was weighted down with something he had never felt before. He was used to the old fatigue that came along with his cancer treatments, but this was entirely different.

He felt like chains were tied to his whole body and to the floor. He could not stop imagining his parents, stricken with grief, going through his things and trying to bring back their son.

Lucien must have had a glazed expression, because Rodolfo came over to him and put a light hand on his shoulder. 'Luciano, I know you must be saddened by these recent events, but you will have a new life here. Wasn't this the world that was so exciting to you? Now you can live here in all of its wonders.'

Gazing up at his master, Lucien felt a lump in his throat. 'Can I go back, just this once? And visit my parents to let them know I am all right?' Rodolfo looked at him, and he could tell that Rodolfo knew that so much could go wrong. But Lucien could see the answer there in his eyes, and waited intently for Rodolfo to say it.

'Of course. I have a new talisman for you.' Rodolfo reached into his robes and pulled out a snow white rose. It was finely groomed and had a nice fragrant smell.

Lucien reached out a happily shaking hand and took the rose. He hugged the sweet thing to his chest and looked up at Rodolfo. 'Thank you, I think I can finally live here properly after I talk to my parents. Thank you so much!'

He spent the rest of the day in a state of pure happiness. Arianna arranged for a celebratory dinner in the palace's dining hall to truly welcome Lucien, or Luciano as everyone called him. Lucien was from the Twenty First Century, where the new Luciano would never belong.

Luciano ate and talked happily with everyone during dinner that night. He took his time, and half an hour after sunset, he went to bed holding his precious rose, thinking of his parents and his old bedroom.

Vicky and David Mulholland were sitting in their kitchen, blankly staring out the window and drinking coffee. Vicky was ready for her son to come bounding down the hall and into the kitchen, demanding a sugary donut for breakfast. She looked through the kitchen and her eyes settled on a picture from their trip to Venice. Where did my baby go? How could he leave? Questions like these ran through Vicky and David's heads every day.

After her coffee, Vicky stood up and prepared herself for the journey ahead. She stiffened her shoulders and held her head high, burying the tears that were fighting to get out. She took long, confident strides to her late sons' room. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She put her hand on the door handle and swung it open. The empty presence inside the room was unnerving, but she built up her wall and took a step in.

Vicky's eyes took a sweeping look of the room and took all of it in. Her son could really just be at a friend's house. There were clothes on the floor and things about Venice spread all throughout the room. She picked up a book, and wondered why her son had such a sudden interest in the city.

She stared at the book for some time. Only did Vicky look up when she saw something shift out of the corner of her eye.

Luciano had been in bed for hours, anxious for sleep. He clutched the rose in his hands, frozen with anticipation, and steadied his breathing. He felt his eyes begin to droop, and his last waking thoughts were about his home in London.

He blinked in the bright sunlight, and saw with relief that he was in his room. His belongings laid untouched. Clothes on the floor, bed undone. He stepped out from beside his dresser and saw his mother standing in his room, looking at one of his books about Venice. Luciano hoped to meet his mother in a happy reunion, not in a surprised scare.

Luciano stood staring at his mother, stock still, when she looked up. She dropped the book and threw a hand to her mouth, and sat down heavily on the bed. Luciano just then realized how different he must look to her, with long black curls and far outdated clothes. He broke from the paralyzing force that held him in place and walked over to his mother.

She looked at him with wide eyes, and simply said, 'I must be dreaming.' Luciano let a small smile creep on to his face and sat down next to her. She immediately grabbed his hand and stared into his eyes. 'Are you my son? Are you my Lucien?' Luciano filled with happiness and answered straight away. 'Yes, but I am Luciano now.'

His mother shook her head and squeezed his hand tighter, and asked the one question that he found hard to answer. 'How are you here? How did you come back?'

Luciano decided, to make things easier, he would show her. He stood up, and followed by the gaze of his mother, went to stand in front of the window that was shining bright with sunlight. He also pulled the rose out of his shirt and beckoned his mother to stand next to him.

Then they stood, side by side, in front of the window. On Luciano's old bed, stretched the shadow of his mother, holding on to an invisible person. His mother let out a small gasp. He gestured to his nonexistent shadow and then the rose. 'You see, I am not really here, but this rose allows me to visit.'

His mother put a hand on his shoulder and then looked down at her shadow, to see it resting on only thin air. She then looked down at him and took his face in her hands. She stroked his soft black curls and savored the warmth of his body. She studied every inch of his face with her longing eyes. 'If you are not here, then where are you? I thought you were... gone.'

He could see tears in his mother's eyes, and decided it was best to explain everything to her. They sat down on his bed and he told her the long and exciting story of him making nightly visits to Talia. How he met Arianna, how he saved the Duchessa, Arianna being crowned the new Duchessa, and then him being kidnapped.

Luciano could tell that his mother was bursting to the brim with questions, but she asked only one. 'So, that's why you would never wake up, because you were in this other world?' Luciano nodded.

'And when I got kidnapped, they took my book from me so I couldn't come back. When I was free, I saw that I had a shadow in Talia, which meant I died here.' His mother nodded heavily, and Luciano realized how hard it must have been for his mother this whole time.

They talked on and on about his adventures in Talia and the whole Di Chimici problem. Luciano felt halfway decent, but he soon noticed that he hadn't talked to his father yet.

David Mulholland was still sitting in the kitchen, his hands folded and his knuckles white. He sat alone in the empty kitchen, listening to the unending silence. Something broke the silence. Soon he would hear words David never thought he would hear again.

He heard his Wife's voice, stuffy but proud, echo through the house and to him. 'Honey, come here! I have a great surprise!'

David pushed out his chair and stood up. He walked away, leaving the chair sitting out, which was very unusual for David, as he normally liked things in their place.

He walked with a stiff and controlled excitement. He heard voices coming from the direction of Lucien's room. David thought that he must be imagining to hear his son's voice. 'He's gone, and trying to make him there won't bring him back,' He said under his breath.

He reached the door of Lucien's room. He leaned close and spoke, 'Hello? Can I come in?' He then heard something that would for sure have knocked him to the floor, if he hadn't been holding on to the door handle. Vicky replied, 'Yes, come in. Your son wants to talk to you.'

David's hand tightened around the door handle and his eyes widened. He sucked in a big breath and forced himself to steady his breathing. Then he opened the door.

Luciano squeezed his mother's hand. The door opened slowly, and Luciano could feel his heartbeat in his ears. He saw his father's face, filled with lines of grief, but when he saw Luciano, the lines disappeared and were replaced with happiness and surprise. Luciano saw his father's eyes fill with tears of joy.

With a rush of compassion, Luciano jumped up from his bed and ran to his father. He buried his face in the familiar smelling shirt. Luciano felt his father's arms close around him and savored the moment.

David hugged his son, in shock, in disbelief. He could feel Lucien, solid as anyone. He could feel Lucien's warm breath on his abdomen and could sense his chest rising and falling. David felt his heart throb and squeezed his son tighter.

They pulled apart and he stood, looking down at Lucien. He looked so much different. The Lucien he knew was gone, but this new one was here, living and breathing.

The Lucien standing in front of him had long black curls tied back in a leather ribbon. He had on a cream wool shirt and leather vest. His pants were brown and baggy. This Lucien was strong and healthy, unlike the one David had seen go.

'Who are you?' David looked down at his son. He saw Lucien's eyes fill with tears. 'To you, I was Lucien Mulholland. But now where I live, I am Luciano Crinamorte. I know it seems completely crazy, but I really do live somewhere else. I live in Talia, in the city of Bellezza, in another world. My best friend is the Ruler of the city, and my adoptive father is from the 1500's and is a crazy cool scientist.'

David looked down at his son in disbelief. 'So, you live somewhere else now? With another family? But how are you here, if you live in another world entirely?'

Luciano shuffled his feet. David couldn't believe that his son was still alive. To his surprise, Luciano moved in front of the window. The sun streaming through it seemed to pass right through him. David looked down at the bed where there was only the shadow of a floating rose.

The reunited family spent the whole rest of the day with each other. Luciano changed into some of his old clothes and put on a baseball cap. They went around the town, ate hotdogs, ice-cream, and watched a new movie at the theatre.

Luciano's parents let him get anything he wanted, do anything. They rode on a coaster at the local fair, talked, and enjoyed themselves.

When the time for supper came, they had an extravagant meal, roast beef smothered in gravy, soda, crisps, and mashed potatoes with peas. For dessert, they had chocolate cream pie with whipped cream, cinnamon buns with frosting, and everything sweet David and Vicky could think of.

After the long meal and much conversation, the sun finally began to set. There was a sense of uneasiness in the air. Luciano could tell that his parents had no idea how he would leave. They were exchanging apprehensive glances. Luciano stood up and began loading his dishes into the dishwasher.

When dinner was cleaned up, Luciano went into his old room, followed by his parents, and changed into his clothes from Talia. He kept the baseball cap on, however, as he would like to hold on to a bit of his old life.

Vicky sent a confused look to her husband, and then watched Luciano climb into his old bed. Luciano looked up at his parents, and realized how confused they must be.

He sat up in the bed and held the rose up for them to see. 'This rose is my talisman. It lets me travel from world to world. When I fall asleep holding this, I will travel back to Talia.'

Luciano then got up and went over to his parents. He reached up and held them in a tight hug. 'I love you, I love you both. Even though you won't see me, I will still be growing up and I will eventually have a family of my own. I will try and visit, but this is very hard for me. I may be able to stay for a few minutes at a time, but will have to go soon.'

Vicky and David stood and hugged their son for some time, but eventually let him go. They watched as he clambered into bed and laid on his back, clutching the rose in both his hands on top of his stomach.

It reminded Vicky of the story, Snow White, of when Snow was laying in the glass coffin. That led to her thinking of the day of her son's funeral, and she burst into tears. David hugged her into his chest.

They stood in silence for what seemed an hour, full of tears, when they saw their son begin to fade. It was like a light being slowly dimmed.

One thing Vicky did notice was the glistening tear on her son's cheek and the remains of a happy smile on his lips. Soon, he was gone, and the blankets fluttered to rest on the bed.

Vicky rushed to the bedside and put a hand on the mattress. She could still feel the remaining warmth from her son's sleeping body. Vicky then stood up, and the two parents once missing a child now knew that their son lived on, away in another world full of magic.

Luciano sensed the bed change, from soft and deep, to thin and hard, the blankets from smooth to scratchy. He didn't know at what point he traveled, but he sensed it all together.

His parents' voices rang in his ears and he could still feel his father's strong arms around him. He lay in bed, basking in the love that had been showered over him from his parents, almost 400 years in the future in another world.

He sat up and pulled the baseball cap from his head. He held it in one hand while with the other he pulled the blankets off of him.

Luciano stood up and put the hat on his bedside table, next to his rose and his journal. He went over to his window and pulled apart the curtains. He turned around and the sun warmed his back. His black shadow stretched across the floor, a mark that bound him to Talia.

... ... ... ...

I wrote this for school about a year ago, and this is not my current writing style, as I also, for the sake of my assignment, wrote it in about the same style as the original author.

-EverChangingLilies