The Young Lady and the Space Lords

Once upon a time, there was a small child named Betsy Anne. She had long golden curls that fell around her face, rosy cheeks, bright blue eyes that her father used to say she had stolen from the sky itself. Betsy Anne was typically precocious, but shy as a result. On most days, she wore a pure white ribbon in her hair to tie back her hair.

It so happened that one day at school, Betsy Anne’s parents were on their way to surprise her with lunch. On the way to the building, they were struck by a bus and had their legs severed from their bodies by the many, many rolling tires. Though they writhed in agony, the police told her that her parents died very, very peacefully.

Betsy Anne had no relatives to live with, and so with a sad heart, she was sent to the shady groves of the Kenswick Orphanage. Her intelligent manner and quiet air did not bode well with most of the other children, and she soon found herself at the mercy of their unrelenting insults and physical attacks.

Through all of this, Betsy Anne, intelligent in nature, had found solace that God was in heaven looking after her parents and smiling down on her. One day, as fist after fist rained down on her, a terrible thought crossed her mind. What if God was up there, and still smiling, even though she was suffering a terrible wrath? Or worse yet, what if God was not there at all?

She quickly banished the notion and tried to look presentable as potential parents came in to pick a child for the keeping, but no parent wanted a bruised child with a torn white ribbon.

Betsy remained pure of heart and soul through the coming years, weathering many storms. Angry children, angry headmaster, taking the weaker, new children under her protection at a great personal risk to herself. She knew that one day she would be rewarded, and it would be good.

The years dragged on, and Betsy grew into a beautiful woman despite her surroundings. On the day that she turned eighteen, Betsy finally left the orphanage. She promised the children that she would be back some day to take them with her, wherever she went, and that she would never, ever leave them behind.

Betsy had a difficult time finding employment. She was beautiful, so no one saw how smart she could be. It was a terrible wake-up call to find that so many people wanted to touch her in so many ways, but no one was willing to employ her in the least. The only jobs she could find were below her nature – were sub-human, to say.

As she was walking, still beaming, back to the tenement housing where she lived, she was stopped by a charming man named Luke. They began to talk at great length about the direction that the world was heading, and found each other very pleasing. That night, Luke came over to Betsy’s apartment, and they stayed up for many hours talking about things. The world, the treatment of children, Betsy’s parents, Luke’s parents, and finally God.

That night, while Betsy was on her back and Luke was blocking her view of the ceiling, she did not see God. She saw a vast nothingness, and in that moment, decided that God was not real and she had been misled all along.

Luke told Betsy the next morning to come with him to his place of worship, and Betsy agreed. At first, she did not like what she saw. There were many men and women all wearing robes that sat at rapt attention, listening to a man speak to no end about the true Lords who would come from the skies to take them all away to a perfect world.

Betsy soon became intoxicated with the stories he was telling. Perhaps there was a world, very far away, filled with green fields and houses for everyone. They would be taken by the Space Lords as chosen beings to represent their race on a distant planet, where they could live in harmony, unlike the rest of the Earth, that was doomed to eternal hatred.

Luke visited Betsy several nights, and they spoke of the Space Lords and just how important the coming weeks were for the preparations. And many times Luke stayed the night, and helped Betsy forget God and her parents.

A few months passed, and Betsy found herself letting her hair fall flat, and found that the only article of clothing that she really needed was the robe that had been given to her... And the white ribbon. The preacher had spoken many times about the preparations needed to go with the Space Lords to their new home, and Betsy was preparing herself for the journey mentally.

To go, she found, you must ingest a specific regiment of chemicals to put you in a deep enough sleep – death. Only when you were in a death state could you safely travel in outer space, to be revived by the Space Lords.

Betsy found that true salvation lied in the distant planet that she could call home, away from Earth and away from God.

On the fateful weekend, Betsy met with the followers and held Luke’s hand. They made their way to a large cabin that sat plump on the side of a mountain. They shared a communal room, and spent the next few days preparing. First, they had to fast to the point of extreme hunger, with nothing to eat or drink save for water.

Then, they had to shave their heads. Betsy almost cried when she cut away the beautiful locks of her hair onto the ground. Having no more use for the ribbon that she had kept all her life, she dropped it into her fleece on the ground. Eventually, they were part of a larger pile that was swept out the door and Betsy held her tears back.

Finally, they had to cut identical marks on their arms, so that the Space Lords would know who to take and who to leave behind.

On the last day, they were given bottles, and not told the contents, by the preacher. He divvied them out, and told every person that at the stroke of midnight, they must drink.

Betsy did not hear the clock strike, though. She was lost in thought of her hair being pushed out the door, and while everyone drank, she began to cry. As she cried, she remembered all the small fists raining down on her, her parents, and the police men that told her how they had died. She remembered the grabby headmaster, finding out what a cruel place the world really was to someone like her, and how God had left her to fend for herself.

She came around in time to see everyone in the room sputtering and vomiting all over themselves, falling out of their beds and writhing on the ground. It did not look very pleasant, she decided, and perhaps this was not the way. She lay back, and told herself that perhaps if she pretended to be asleep, the Space Lords would still take her.

She waited, and waited, cold and hungry, the smell of bile choking her, but she kept her eyes closed and sat perfectly still. After a full day, she began to think that maybe they would not take her because she was awake and they knew that. Maybe they would not take her friends, because she was faking it.

Luke seemed so peaceful in the bed next to hers, red vomit staining his white robe. She sighed, and reluctantly began to drink the contents of the bottle.

After a few seconds, her stomach was on fire. She was in agony, but her muscles locked up and she could not fight it. She vomited, but the poison had already entered into her system. She began to cry again, and fell back against the pillow, not quite dead.

In a minute, the cabin began to shake. The pictures fell from the wall and the beds moved across the floor. The door swung open on its own accord, and the ceiling was pulled very, very quickly from the building. There was a large saucer that dropped down, and a bright light.

Betsy stared. She had taken the medicine just in time.

The being moved from the light, and looked over the room. The being shook its head, and moved back towards the light. Betsy, using all of her energy, called out, “Wait! Where are you going! I’ve waited so long for you to take me with you.”

The being stopped, and turned. “Then why did you poison yourself? We can only take you if you're alive. This was a foolish thing to do, miss.” The being paused, and held out its hand. Betsy weakly opened her palm, and the being dropped a small, white lace ribbon into her open hand.

And with that, the saucer disappeared into the night sky.

Betsy closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

She began to pray, and hoped that she had been wrong about God.