Jane lost both her parents when she was just a toddler. They were killed in a car wreck. Her grandparents had taken her into their home and raised her. She was fifteen years old now. She did not have many friends. She felt alone and lonely most of the time. She had begged her grandparents to buy her a computer so she could surf the internet to pass her time. They wanted Jane to be happy, so they bought her one.
Jane had a whole new world open up to her online. She made lots of new friends, probably would never meet any of them in person, but they still cared more about her than anyone in real life did she thought. She knew her grandparents loved her, but they were very old fashioned and kept a tight rein on her life. They just did not want her to have any fun.
Jane lied to get on a matchmaking site. She knew anyone under age 18 was not allowed so she lied about her age and said she was 18. She felt even older than that, so what did it hurt to just be three years older than she really was?
She created a profile and almost immediately a man aged 21 wrote to her. They seemed to hit it off well and were a perfect match. They wrote emails every day to each other. Jane felt like for the first time in her life, she had someone who really cared about her.
John was twenty-one. He had already had several relationships in his life and none of them had ever worked out. He had a volatile temper and things had always ended badly. He just wanted a girl to be honest, and not play games with his mind. He thought Jane was so wonderful. He put her up on a pedestal. He begged her to give him her phone number so he could hear her voice, but she was afraid her grandparents would find out about him and end it.
She told John she lived with her grandparents and they just would not understand if she had a boyfriend, so to keep him, he would just have to be satisfied with emails for the time being.
John thought it strange that an eighteen year old girl could be so controlled by her grandparents. How come she just didn't move out of their house into a place of her own? Jane had to make up some more lies to cover up the one about her age. She hated lying. She realized she was caught up in a totally deceitful relationship. But she just could not let John go. She needed his love so badly.
Jane found out that her grandparents were going on a week's cruise for their fiftieth wedding anniversary. She assured them she would be fine at home alone for a week. But in her mind, she had no intentions of being alone at all. This would be their chance to meet in person. She and John could finally meet and experience this love they had shared online.
John was as excited about it as Jane was. He bought a plane ticket to her town, then hired a taxi to take him to Jane's house. It was out in the country, so they would have a lot of privacy. Just think, he would be alone with Jane for a whole week. Maybe they would even get married while her grandparents were away.
The taxi pulled up in front of Jane's house and left. John knocked on the front door. It opened and there stood a fifteen year old girl, not the woman he was expecting at all.
"Jane?" he asked.
"Yes, I am Jane. Are you John?" she was clearly just as disappointed as he was. He didn't look anything like he had described himself, but he was 21. He was dirty and unkempt in his appearance with long hair. He looked like the kind of person who was on drugs, and he smelled bad, like a mixture of body odor and alcohol. Suddenly, Jane was afraid to let him in her house, and wished that she were not alone.
John must have sensed she did not like him. He asked her, "Are you going to let me come in, or do I have to leave? I came a long ways to meet you."
Jane remembered all the love they had shared online, and she told herself to stop being so afraid of John. He was probably just dirty from being on that plane. He would be fine when he cleaned up. So she let him in her house.
She suggested John take a shower and clean up after his long trip while she fixed them something to eat. He did take a shower. When he came back in the kitchen, she had nuked them two tv dinners. This was definitely not a grown woman. She had not been honest with him. He sat down at the table and they ate their dinners silently. She was quite shy. All he could do was think of all the lies she had told him.
"I have been wanting to kiss your lips for months now, Jane," he told her.
"Yes, me too," she told him.
So John stood up and kissed Jane. It was Jane's first kiss. She didn't know if she was doing it right or not. She only hoped she was.
John knew he could take full advantage of Jane since she was alone. But all he could think about was her lies to him. Her kiss of inexperience only made matters worse for him.
"Bubble gum!" he exclaimed.
"Huh?" she responded.
"Why did you lie to me, Jane, about your age?" he asked.
"I am sorry I did that, but I didn't want to lose you, John. I was afraid you would not have anything to do with me if you knew I am just fifteen," she admitted.
When he heard the word, fifteen, he freaked out. "I told you honesty is so very important to me, Jane."
Jane was scared now. How could she have been so foolish to let this man come into her grandparent's house? How could she have thought she was in love with this man? He was not even close to what he had made himself out to be, and to be blaming her with lies?
"Well, you are nothing like what you said you are either, John," she said in defense of herself.
That remark only made John madder. He reached over and picked up a large book and began hitting Jane in the head with it. She screamed for him to stop but he just kept hitting her again and again. Finally, she quit screaming and dropped to the floor in a puddle of blood. She was not moving.
His senses came back to him then.
"Oh no, what have I done?" he screamed.
He bent down to see if Jane was still alive. She had no pulse. He had killed her. He had killed Jane because she had lied to him about her age.
"What kind of monster am I to do such a thing?" he screamed.
He knew he had to do something fast to cover up what he had done. He got matches and lit fires all over the house. The fire was blazing up all around him. He had waited too late to get out of the house. He was trapped inside now.
He could see Jane's spirit standing there looking at him, saying if she had to die, then it's justice that he must die too.
The house was totally engulfed with flames. He reached over to her body and smoke and flames overwhelmed him. He died reaching for her.
When Jane's grandparents returned home, they found their home completely burned to the ground. Everything had been destroyed. Upon investigation, the police found two remains of human bodies inside; one was identified as their granddaughter, the other was never identified. They would never know what had really happened while they were gone on their anniversary cruise, except that their beloved granddaughter had died in the fire.
