It's Hard To Be Holy

EP. 55: Chapter VII

Coarse, Offensive, and Racially Derogatory Language. Reader Discretion Advised.

But what was said in the shadows of the soul of Alfonso Ignatius (the Second), verging towards Alan, still unable to break free of Bud, proved more true by the day. The sudden and inexplicable arrival of The Woman, not a passing fancy as far as Edward Towne was concerned, would forever leave an undeniable mark on the only Carr son.

War was coming!

The Day of Reckoning was upon Them!

And it came just as the Voice of Reasoning had predicted:

A Bud with ideas is a little too brave for his own good.

It was all suddenly clear to Bud that day in the hospital, cowering as his Creature raged and blustered, that this was no longer a tenable relationship. A Creature who sends his protectorate into The Woods as punishment is no champion. Action was needed, and Bud would mount his greatest stand against the would-be Usurper; for he had begun to understand what it was he had created. He could no longer turn his cheek to the truth. If not now, then it would be too late. He feared It more than anything that lay beyond. He feared how It hated, how cruel and selfish It could be, how It viewed the world, his friends, his family, their triumphs and failures as solely obstacles to Its own vain wants! It had come to Bud in such a time of need and had promised such gentle, loving comforts—

The Great Liar!

—but It had cared little for him, Bud saw that now. Only for Itself. Its wants. Its aims; and to achieve all that, the Creature Alan demanded total allegiance. Obedience and silence were the orders of the crutch—yes, It was a crutch!—and woe-be-him who fails his Creature!

Shh, It said. Everything is fine—

Deceiver!

Methodically, it bore Bud away from his comforts and joys and regrets; and Bud had let It! Bud had been weak. Bud had needed someone to love him...

Where else was I supposed to go—

Do not doubt! The time for such frailties had past. He was a man now, and all men must reckon with what they have wrought. He would not go back to The Woods, he would never let himself be banished there! He would act, for if he cowered any longer, there would be nothing left to save.

Do not bide your time! Do not be Alan Carr! Be like Bud: Act! Save yourself! Drive your Creatures out; kill your Alans!

And yet...for that Creature Alan, he did nothing in the face of these stirrings. He knew all of Bud's little plots and conspiracies, but saw them only as delusions, and he was tolerant sovereign insofar as he was happy to forever bide his time and permit his subjects fancies. Neither could he wholly blame his Bud for such insubordination. The episode in the hospital had been an event that had shown Alan what he was capable of, what his own Voice of Reason demanded of him alone, and such a capability shamed him. He could not blame Bud for his anger at the punishment. It had been cruel to show The Woods—

It was necessary!

There have to be better ways.

Not anymore!

He'll calm down.

You need to go further!

But Alan would not listen to that Voice of Reason, his own, independent of Bud, just as Bud never listened to his Alan. This was not, he knew, the first time the factions of Alfonso Ignatius (the Second) had ever come to blows, and despite his rhetoric, Alan always believed, as had been proven many times over, in Their eventual reconciliation. Bud always came back to Alan, and Alan was always there to welcome—