Setting a freshly made meal on the table, a woman looks up as she hears the front door open.

"Is that you dear? She called out from the kitchen.

"Yea Mom" The boy responded to his mother, June, as he rounded the corner from the front hall. The boy of twelve years of age by the name of Ian wandered into his home after receiving a phone call from his mother to return home for dinner. He had sandy blond hair, just like his mother. His eyes were a deep green. Standing at 5'4, even at twelve he equaled his mother's height.

His father, David, returned home shortly there after as well and they all sat down for a meal.

"How was school today Ian?" His father enquired politely over their meal.

Ian shrugged. "Same old as always. Had another test in Math. Not sure how I did though."

The conversation continued in that manner for the rest of the meal. Toward the end, Ian's mother chimes in.

"Ian, we've run out of a few things for dinner tomorrow. Would you be able to make a run to the store for me after dinner?" His mother asked.

"Sure mom. Maybe I can get Sam to come with me."

Sam was Ian's best friend and neighbor. Coincidentally the same person he had been with when he had received his mother's call earlier.

Ian left his house, jacket zipped up to avoid the cold of the chilly fall air, headed toward Sam's house. Sam was a red-haired boy a few inches shorter than Ian. His brown eyes tended to look cold to those who didn't know him well, but they hid mirth at the best of times.

Ian and Sam lived in a quiet, small town about fifty miles outside of the country's capital of Washington DC. They also lived close enough to the supermarket for it to be a half hours walk at a healthy pace. Being hard on money as his family was, it was cheaper and simpler to walk to the store than to waste the gas their car would have used. Ian also loved to take walks when it was nearing nightfall, so he had no complaint. Watching the sun sink with its colors, only to be overtaken by the purples, and then the blacks of night was soothing to him in its own way.

Sam and Ian had walked for about fifteen minutes before something caught their attention.

Ian noticed it first. It sounded like singing. Sam noticed soon after.

"Can you hear that?" Sam asked Ian.

Ian nodded. The tune sounded familiar to them both. It was faint, as if being carried on the fall wind.

"Come with me, and you'll be…."

Ian began to walk forward, unconsciously looking for the source of the music. It was eating away at him as he tried to remember where he'd heard that tune before.

"…Take a look and you'll see, into your imagination…"

Sam had followed behind Ian, listening as well. Sam figured out the tune first, stopping to think.

"…Travelling in the world of my creation. What we'll see will defy explanation."

"It's that song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, right?" Sam said to Ian.

As Sam had been thinking, Ian had wandered about twenty meters away from him. Still following the sound. He raised his voice and spoke back to Sam. "Yeah, that's it. Who the hell…?"

The boys, against their minds telling them not to, were drawn to the sound.

As though lured by a siren's call.

Helpless to stop themselves, they followed to sound of singing.

Rounding a corner, the boys saw a young girl, sitting on a fountains base in the town cemetery the boys had been lead to. She was facing away from them.

They could see she was wearing a white and pink dress, her hair a light brown, shining brighter in the now setting sun.

"There is no life I know, to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free, if you truly wish to be."

'This song sounds so sad' Ian thought to himself. He stepped closer, his foot stepping into a pile of leaves, making a loud crunch.

The girl, startled, turned around. The boys locked eyes with the girl. Her bright blue eyes were piercing in their own way. For a second, Ian noticed that she had been crying. Then, his vision exploded in colors.

He saw fantastical images of scenes from books he had read, dreams he one day wanted to accomplish, childhood fantasies. He was lost in his own imagination.

"If you want to view paradise, simply look around a view it. Anything you want to, do it. Come with me and you'll be in a world of pure imagination. There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you'll be free, if you truly wish to be."

"I'm…s..sor..ry." Over the onslaught of sensation Ian was experiencing, he heard a broken voice. He could only think to describe it as if it had lacked use, or the owner of the voice to be fighting with themselves to speak at all.

Then Ian's world went black.

Two police officers arrived at the cemetery the next morning. Ian and Sam's parents reported them missing the night before when they didn't return home. They had been found by the groundskeeper at the cemetery that morning. Both boys' parents identified the bodies.

The autopsies of the boys determined their death was caused by a brain aneurism. It was noted the cause of death being extremely odd for both boys, considering their age not suiting the death and the time of death being the same almost to the second.

Foul play was investigated and drugs had been considered. However, not trace of drug or any other factor could be found in their blood, nor had any kind of puncture or otherwise had been found on their bodies.

However, no one could explain why both boys had smiles on their faces, as the smiles had stayed after the boys died. They looked content, yet in some way sad.

Yet, in the end, it was ruled to be an extremely unfortunate coincidence.