Heyyyy. Here begins the third and last part of this story and I am WARNING you, in this part there will be A LOT of swearing in Italian(you'll eventually see why). So, yeah, You've been warned. It may not impact you as much, though, since most of it you won't understand it, but if you google it you might find translations a bit strong. If there is someone out there who understands Italian, good, but you've been warned too.

Chicago, 2010

1.

"So, what you're saying is that not only I won't be going to Caitlin's birthday but also that I'll have to spend my weekend with you, and Phineas, and my nonna…" The teenager leaning on the kitchen counter paused to give her speech a more dramatic ending "in a boat?"

"Ellie..." Her mother put the cloth she was using to clean the table down.

"It's Elle, mother. Elle." The teenager scowled, making her mother give her half a smile.

"You can visit Caitlin after we get back." Her mother took the milk carton on the table with a frown "Did you left this here?" The teenager raised her eyebrows, of course it had been her. "Anyways, you know how your grandma's been lately. I want us all to spend some time together." The woman said putting the carton inside the refrigerator and then looking at her hand watch.

"Is it safe to take a 70 something year old on a trip for a weekend overseas?" The girl grimaced.

Her mother sighted.

"Can you go and pick Phineas, please? I'll have guests down on the studio before 1 am. I need to look decent." The blonde woman walked to Elle again.

Elle took a look at her mother: her hair put up on a bun supported by a pair of chopsticks and a paint brush, her old T-shirt with paint stains and ripped at the bottom, and her jeans always the smallest size and still falling down her mother's sides. Also, the woman was barefoot.

"Jeez. I'll do it just because you look disgusting." Elle crossed her arms in disapproval.

"Thanks, Elle." Her mother walked to her, her hands raised as if she would try to grab her head and give her a kiss.

"Whatever" The teenager escaped before she fell in the clutches of her mother.

Elle walked to the door, but before she could open it her mother called again.

"And could you cook your brother for lunch after you two get back?"

Elle groaned before slamming the door, still she didn't leave, she stood outside for a pair of seconds and then opened the door again. Her face in amazement as she looked at her mother:

"Mom" she said in the sweetest voice she could come up with "I think I just went to Narnia."

The papers on the blonde woman fell to the floor as she turned to her daughter, her eyes wide opened.

"Really?" She asked wholeheartedly.

"No. I hate Narnia!" Elle responded before slamming the door again. As the teenager walked down the stairs she grinned. "She always falls for that."

"C'mon, kid. I don't have all day!" Elle yelled to her brother. In less than a minute the boy had reached her.

"Sorry, I was checking…checking a-a... test! Yes! With my math teacher, yes." He said as he ran after his sister who was leaving him behind on her bicycle. "She said I did great on my last exams. The best in the generation, she said. Hey...can I climb up?"

"No" Elle answered. She didn't want to carry her brother's weight around, it was enough with having to pick him up and cooking for him. "I don't understand why you just don't take the bus like the other kids."

"Mom doesn't like it. It's too..."

"It's too crowded, I know, I've been there, remember?" The girl shook her head "She never had a problem with it when I was in middle school. She's just spoiling you."

"Well," The boy had started to breath heavily "you're not asthmatic."

Elle grimaced. Excuses, excuses.

"C'mon." She stopped the bike, knowing her mother would not approve of finding his younger son hyperventilating. "Jump on"

"Tony's online!" A voice said aloud from the living room. Elle jumped out of her bed and ran out.

Phineas was already there, sitting by her mother on the couch. The woman had her laptop opened on her legs. Elle ran behind the couch just I time to see the video call starting. The session took a few seconds charging then in the screen Tony appeared.

"Sorry, guys. It may be a bit slow but the reception is not good here" The man in the screen excused himself. "Hey, everyone!" He waved at them through the camera.

"Hey, how's everything down there?" The blue-eyed woman asked.

"Everything's just fine, mamma. As usual. It's been a couple of hard days but finally I found some time to sleep." The 20-year-old man in the computer answered. "You better keep your stuff together now that you can, bambini. College is way worse than high school" Elle smiled at her older brother "or middle school." He added.

"Hey, Tony," Phineas exclaimed, which made Elle's lips purse in annoyance. Her older brother didn't have much time, he needed to sleep after all. But once the kid started talking he would never shut up. "I am doing amazing in my exams. Mom says I'll be able to go to Texas and study engineering, just like you."

"That'll be great. We could be roommates" The black-haired man joked.

In front of Elle, the mother of family put an arm around the youngest member.

"What about you, Elle?" Tony asked "How's your sabbatical semester?"

"Sabbatical?" Their mother asked. "She got suspended, Tony. Don't make her get so full of herself."

"I'm playing, mamma" The man gave her that charming Italian smiled that always helped him get away from his mother's wrath. "So, how is it everything back home, Ellie? Are you being good to mamma?"

"Everything's fine." The teenager shrugged "I just found out today that I'm not going to Caitlin's this weekend and I'll have to spend it taking care of an old lady on the sea. So yeah, everything's fine. Oh" She added "and I picked Phineas up from school today and cooked for him, if that answers your second question. Unfortunately, I didn't mistake salt with arsenic…"

"Ellie..." Tony complained.

"Don't call her that." Her mother made fun of her "She's Elle, now."

"Well, that's my name, mother." Elle frowned in distaste "You gave it to me."

Tony sighted.

"Ellie, don't make it hard on mamma." Tony begged.

Elle scowled.

"Okay" She said.

The family of four stayed in silence for a few seconds.

"I wish you were here, Tony" Elle said, surprising both her mother and little brother, since she wasn't the most affectionate person.

"So do I, sorella." Tony said before taking a look at his hand watch "I better get going. With luck, I'll sleep 5 hours straight" Tony looked at the camera and waved "I love you, famiglia. And good luck with la nonna."

"Take care, baby." The mother said waving back.

"Bye, Toby!" Phineas put his face in front of the camera for a second.

"Ciao, fratello" Elle sighted as the videocall ended, and walked back to her bedroom.

"I hate boats!" Elle groaned looking down at the sea.

"You hate everything!" Phineas murmured beside her rolling his eyes.

"Shut up, stronzo" She said raising her hand as if she was about to hit him. She never did, of course, but she liked the way he would back up.

"Look at this, children," Her nonna's feeble voice was heard as she started moving near the railing on her wheelchair "what a sight! When you're older, you'll learn to appreciate the beauty behind all things." The cracking in her voice reminded Elle of the evil old queen from Snow White. "It reminds me of my childhood in Narnia..."

"There she goes again" Elle rolled her eyes.

That's what she hated the most about her nonna's visits.

When she was young, Elle didn't dislike the bedtime stories her mother told her every night about a magical land with some fantastic creatures, like minotaurs, centaurs, dwarfs, talking animals, kings and queens, and a great lion that protected all of them. But as she grew older it started to freak her out the way her mother actually thought the stories were real. And her nonna? She was worse! Elle totally disliked her because Elle was afraid that the old woman would eventually end up in a crazy house and she would take Elle's mother with her. Yeah, la nonna had been a super important woman in her days, but now she was nothing but a watery-eyed old woman talking about child stories on a wheelchair with a lot of money in her bag.

"...the skies were a light blue most of the times, and it was reflected in the sea. So clean, so pure, you could even see the fish swimming around you..."

"Dumber?" Elle whispered at her brother "What's the probability of me being sent to jail after throwing a wheelchair through the board in which coincidentally my nonna was sitting on?"

Phineas rolled his eyes and went to take her nonna's wheelchair. Great, he was sacrificing himself for Elle. Good kid.

"Maybe we should go with mom, Gran" Phineas said "You've been under the sun for too long"

Then they both left inside the main chambers.

"Bad kid" Elle growled.

One day had passed. One day! And if Elle had to listen the name "Narnia" again once more, she would have to kill someone. Her mother and nonna acted like teenagers on a pajama party, but instead of talking about boys, they talked about a fictional place. Where did they got their imagination from?

"Okay, stop it." Elle said in the room, but she was ignored. "Stop it," She repeated "okay, SHUT UP!" She yelled.

The white-haired lady and her mother stopped talking and turned to her.

"Elle! Don't raise your voice like that!" Her mother scolded her.

"Then stop talking about your stupid Narnia!" She raised a hand "My patience, okay? It reached this high and you've totally destroyed it" The girl stood up and took her iPod. "I've had enough of you two, for a lifetime. I'm done here" She growled before storming out of the room, but Elle didn't leave. She stood there outside the door, listening.

"What's your excuse for that child now?" Elle's nonna said. The teenager outside the door rolled her eyes, of course they'd be talking about her.

Elle heard a sigh.

"She just misses her brother" Her mother answered. "You know he's her idol, her..."

"I understand that, Edna. But Tony's been gone for two years now, and she's been suspended twice, she's mean to Phineas and" The voice paused "to you."

"She's just 15, it's her rebellious stage." Elle nodded, not because what her mother was saying was true, but because he was defending her against her nonna.

"Well, yours sure came a bit later in life" She heard both women laugh. A sigh again "You've given her too much freedom."

"I just don't want her to feel like I did" Edna's voice became softer "Besides, I still hope that Narnia..."

There it was again. Elle clenched her teeth.

"Screw Narnia," She said as she walked out to the cold ocean wind "and screw you nonna…"

"...open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind..."

What was that? Elle had heard a voice, for sure.

"…in this darkness that you now you cannot fight…"

There it was again. She crossed her arms around her, covering herself from the chilling wind crawling up her spine. Someone was singing. She started walking towards the voice.

"...the darkness of the music of the night..."

She had not seen him yet, yet she knew it was Phineas. Who else would it be?

"…Let your mind start a journey to a strange new world…"

Elle scowled as soon as she saw him. She had never heard the boy sing. Great, not only was he smart, he could sing too. Bravo, she thought in sarcasm.

"...leave all thoughts of the light you knew before…"

He was leaning on the metal chained railing and from what Elle saw, he had his earphones on.

She had walked out to stay away from her family and had found her young brother singing to the moon up in the night sky.

Just one day more and she'd be free, she remembered to herself. God, what did she do to deserve that crazy ass family?

"...let your song take you were you long to be…" His voice was soft and disgustingly sweet and classy for Elle's ears who preferred rock groups like Green Day or Kiss, or country singers like Carrie Underwood or Tim McGraw.

"...only then can you belong to me…"

An idea crossed Elle's mind. She smirked and started walking to Phineas. If his brother was feeling like Jack from Titanic, she had to pop his bubble before he started believing he was actually him. She couldn't stand one more crazy people in her family, because even if he was always respectful about the topic, Elle was certain that Phineas thought Narnia was real just as much as her. She needed to stop him before he started losing it too.

"...floating, falling, sweet intoxication…"

She raised her hands in front of her.

"...touch me, trust me, savor each sensation…"

It was only going to be a little joke.

"...let the dream begin, let your darkest side give in to the power of the music that I write..."

Her brother was so inspired, he had started to raise and move his arms. Who did he think he was? Shakespeare? She couldn't stop smirking. She already could see his scared face after what she'd do.

"the power of the music of the ni...AH!"

In her mind, Elle had thought about pushing his brother, just a little, to see him freak about falling into the dark night ocean. She never thought that the thick, big, metal chain in front of his brother would actually snap, making him fall into the darkness.

"Oh my god" She said calmly, confused, with her brows frowned. "I just threw by 14-year-old brother into the ocean" She raised an eyebrow.

She let it sink for a minute, approximately, she leaned on the now non-existing railing, looking down at the cold waters. They were calm, too calm, no Phineas in sight. Elle had swum on the sea, earlier that day, but it was dark now. "Where is him?" She murmured and gulped. "Should I call m..." Then she realized what she had done. "Oh, holy shit! I threw by brother into the ocean!" She screamed "AND HE DOESN'T SWIM!"

And she screamed.

"MOTHER!"

But her mother didn't seem to hear her. Where was the captain and the guy who helped him? What was she supposed to do?

"IDIOT!" She yelled down at the waters. It wasn't a big fall, but the ship wasn't small enough. What if the things behind the ship, those who moved it, catch her brother and made him a smashed potato? "PHINEAS!"

She was freaking out, and there were two options for what happened to people when they freaked out: their minds cleared up for the adrenaline rush and came up with brilliant, efficient ideas... or acted stupid. And she fell on the second type, so she acted stupidly.

She threw her iPod on the floor and jumped off. In a millisecond, all of her body had been engulfed by the cold, cold Lake Michigan waters. It wasn't the best moment to think about it but she remembered reading online an article about a white shark attack on that lake. But those thoughts faded away when she felt something on her hand. She cringed away scared of it being an algae or fish, but then she remembered, PHINEAS! She reached again, her eyes closed. It was so scary not to see, smell, taste or hear anything, but just be floating around with nothing to touch. And then, there it was again, that feeling, she reached even more and there was hair, and a head, a pair of shoulders, a body, PHINEAS! She held him by both shoulders and opened her eyes. The salt burned them, making it all blurry, not that there was a lot to see, being surrounding by bone-freezing dark waters. Yet, somehow, she was able to see her brother, his eyes half opened. She had him, she only had to swim up! But her lungs were already out of air, and then, the pinching. Was she being attacked by angry fish, or something? Maybe piranhas? She felt something pinching her everywhere, but she couldn't see anything but Phineas.

Her lungs had barely no air, when she heard a bell ringing out of the water. She couldn't care less about it, though, for she felt something dragging her towards the bottom of the ocean. Lower and lower, until she felt hers and Phineas body turning around. The ship and the air were now on their feet and the bottom of the ocean on their heads. They were going up, while going down, and the water started getting clearer, and there was light and Elle couldn't understand how it was possible but by going the opposite way they were going to the surface.

But they wouldn't make it. Phineas had been a lot of time under water, he wouldn't make it. So, she used her last amount of air to push up her brother, towards the now crystal-clear waters, while sending herself to the bottom, to the darkness.

The last thing she saw was pair of bodies diving into the water. One of them had grabbed her brother and the other one was swimming to her.

"There it is" The man that had just applied CPR at his sister backed down to let her breathe as she coughed out the water in her lungs.

Elle was lying on the wooden floor of the ship that had rescued them and reminded Phineas of a pirate ship like in Pirates of the Caribbean. Once she got her normal breathing back she looked at him.

"'Guess I didn't die." She muttered to herself.

Phineas gave her his hand but she didn't take it and stood up by herself.

"Where are we?" She asked to one in particular, looking at her surroundings. Phineas couldn't respond too. "Who are you?" She asked to the man with shoulder length hair, who had taken her out of the water. Phineas also looked at his sister observing the group of men around them.

"Let me introduce myself" The man, which Phineas recognized had a strong accent, like Tony's, took a step towards them. "King Caspian the X, of Narnia"

Phineas eyes opened wide. Narnia? He looked at his sister, she had raised an accusing finger at the man.

"Are you working for my nonna?" She asked.

"Pardon me, your what?" The man asked back in confusion.

"My grandmother!" She exclaimed "She paid you, didn't she?" The girl was starting to look like a maniac "Where are you, nonna?!" She yelled "I'm not falling for it, I'm tired of this sick game of yours!" She yelled looking at the group of man as if their grandmother would jump at them from behind of what seemed to look like the great vessel's crew. "MOTHER!"

Phineas couldn't resist anymore the glances they were receiving from the men, especially the one who had presented himself as king of Narnia. Phineas took a step at his sister and put a hand over her mouth, just for a few seconds before she pushed him away.

"Get off of me, idiot!" Only then she pointed at him. "Which reminds me...you! Are you her accomplice? Was it all prepared for you to fall off the ship?"

"I'm really sorry to interrupt, but who are you?" The man, Caspian, asked, before turning slightly to his side "Crew dismissed" And so, the crew left the three alone.

"Okay, stop it!" Elle raised her voice at Caspian "This isn't funny any...AH!" She screamed when a huge mouse appeared out of nowhere.

"Is there any problem, your majesty?"

"AH!" Elle jumped behind Phineas and over his shoulder she pointed at the mouse with a red feather on his head "A RAT! And it talks!"

"Hey!" In just a second, the mouse had climbed the ship's wooden railing and pointed back at his sister with a little sword that looked like a needle. "I haven't been in hundreds of battles to be called a rat by the likes of you, girl!"

"Phineas," Elle nudged him in the shoulder "it's talking to me!"

"Which means that we really are in Narnia!" Phineas realized opening his eyes and stretching his hand at Caspian.

"I'm Phineas, and this is..."

"Elle" His sister interrupted without taking her eyes out of the mouse.

Caspian took his hand still with a wondering eye.

"For what I've heard you're not from Narnia" The man said "Where are you from?"

Phineas turned at her sister who grimaced at him.

"I think..." Phineas turned back to the man "I think you knew our mother."