Chapter 4 THE BATTLE WITHIN

He woke up where he was. His eyes hurt terribly and he snapped them shut.

The older man was pulling down the curtains on the windows of his room, darkening the room.

"You awake?"

He groaned and opened his eyes.. "What time is it?"

"It's 12pm." His butler replied.

"Wow, the time is long gone." He stated, now standing up and pulling the robe from the near-by chair, he put it on while waiting for his butler to pull down all the curtains in the big room.

"What time did you get in last night?" The butler asked.

He walked to the keyboard while wearing his robe before sitting down. "I can't remember, was around some minutes past four I think. " He replied, his mind was vague, it usually happened like that but everything would come back later.

"How are you?"

He sighed, Adams liked asking him so many questions. He didn't blame him though, he was after all concerned.

"I will be fine. " He replied, his eyes roamed around the bed and they fell on the ring that was just on the stool beside him. He picked it up and put it in his pocket.

"You don't have to darken all the room, I need some fresh sunlight." He said, standing up. "Since I have my ring with me, I will keep 'him' away.

"Well, okay." Adams replied, pulling up one of the curtains.

He could feel Adams watching him as he was walking out of the room. But then he stopped, not being in his 'other' form didn't stop him from sensing that Adam had something to say to him.

"Are you okay?" He asked turning around to look at the old man who shook his head.

"What is it?"

"When you woke up this morning, your eye were red all of a sudden before the pupils took over."

He felt like someone had just slapped him and he could feel 'odins' joy and excitement deep down. His evil side was taking over...no, he couldn't allow that.

**

He poured himself some drink from the bottle of wine at the bar before sitting down on the stool. Damn it! He was running out of time and 'Odin' was getting stronger deep down in the darkness of his heart. He couldn't risk that and yet, he couldn't meet her right now. He was too vulnerable and his human nature was getting weaker, the more time he spent apart from her, the more weaker he got, and the more impatient 'Odin' would become and that wasn't a good thing.

This curse was becoming unbearable for him and he could hear the voice of his beastly side....in his head.

"You know I'm still gonna win as I've always won"

"Shut up odin! You are cursed. This is my time and you are not going to win this time."

"How are you going to do that? Not with the way you are getting weaker and weaker every day. "

"No, I am stronger than you are, I am going to repel you, I am going to overcome. "

"Well, we shall see about that. You do know I'm inside you right? We are one. I am your other half and you are nothing without me, Ichab."

"Shut up! Shut up!"

There was a sinister laughter from 'Odin.'

"If you want to be angry with anyone be angry with yourself, if you had not been stupid as to piss off a powerful witch and kill her daughter with grief, maybe you wouldn't have been cursed with me!"

"I didn't kill her. Tanya loved me and I loved another, she died of heartbreak. I didn't kill her..."

"Story story...we are running out of time, let's do what we have to do on time, the salvation of one is the downfall of the other remember?"

Unable to take it any longer, he took the ring from his pocket. He was sweating and his chest was rising and falling as he could still hear Odin's laughter in his head. Shutting his eyes, he plunged the ring into his finger, silencing him and finally being able to breathe.

"Son of a bitch." He said aloud. He should have put on the ring in the first place but now, Odin was right. He needed to ask fast but, getting closer to this woman would also mean bringing Odin closer to her....Damn it! How would you save yourself from yourself....?

"Have you been fighting with yourself again?"

He turned around as he spotted Adams, coming in. He walked closer to pour himself a drink. Even though he had kidnapped the poor man on his arrival, they had become good friends.

"Odin is still disturbing you isn't he?" Adams asked.

"Yea, that bastard is toying with my head."

"Tell me about the story of when you got the curse..." Adams said, sipping from his cup.

"Well, , , , " He started, his mind drifting to the incident of a thousand years ago-

"It was supposed to be the happiest day of my life but somehow, it became the saddest day of my life. I had just been married to Denis, the love my life. She was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Perhaps, it was the beauty of her dark skin but there was just something about her that I know I would never find in any woman. She was the one for me and I was the one for her. Her hair was full and black, I loved curling it around my finger." He smiled sadly and continued.

"She was the daughter of a nobody but she was a courageous woman. I found her in the woods while coming back from a war. She was raped in the woods, I later found the men and killed them so I brought her home. She was so beautiful and strong. She made everyone laugh, she was so kind and she advised me so many times. We became friends, it was easy for me to fall in love with her. I never knew my father had promised another girl to me in marriage before he died. Her name was Tanya, she was the daughter of a powerful witch in our kingdom. She wasn't really my type, she was too proud and condescending. Her mother did my father a favor before he got the throne, so to repay the favour, she asked that her daughter be wedded to me. I got to know of this shortly after I fell in love with Denis. I had to tell her the truth, that I didn't love her. I asked her to just be friends. It was on my wedding day that the witch came to destroy everything, she killed every of my guest and then cursed me...with two personalities-a human by day and a vampire by night." He stopped as Adams poured him more drink....

"What happened to Denis?"

He sighed heavily. "I killed her....I killed her with my two hands....I didn't know what I was doing...the curse was so strong...."

**

"That was one very fucked up life." Adams said, pouring him another drink. "So you killed your wife on your wedding day and you were then locked up in a coffin."

He smiled, "yea, cheers to that."

Adams sighed. "So that night that you found me, at the grave yard, that was Odin that I met."

"Yea, he is the reckless, evil one."

"Cos I was so surprised when you woke up the next day and you were all gentle and apologetic about kidnapping a poor old man but seeing you in your normal self, I had to just stay. Your luck is the worst I have ever encountered."

"Thanks for the compliment." He replied and they both cheered before drinking.

"So what next?" Adams asked.

"The next thing is for me to go find this lady. The witch had said the salvation is the downfall of one, meaning, whichever one gets to her first. Odin has been creeping out in the midnight to meet her, if she ever allows her in, I would lose. "

"Allow her in how?"

"Well, you see, vampires don't enter people's house unless they are asked to 'come in.' Literally speaking, the same applies to her heart, if I make her fall in love with me, if the love is so strong enough to repel the evil on the night of the full moon when Odin will finally be at his strongest, I might be able to defeat him forever. But if I fail to do that and the full moon occurs, Odin will take her, there will be no connection between us to fight of the evil with. The witch is trying to punish me for not loving her daughter. Now she is trying to make me make another love me, she might, she might not. I don't know how that will work out. If Odin have intercourse with her on the full moon and then bites her, because that has to occur first before she gets bitten. Her blood will make him-or should I saw –us immortal. But there will be no more Ichab, just the beast. Imagine if a vampire stays in this country forever, no one will be safe anymore.

On the night of the full moon, if the love is really true, the love will overpower the evil and, Odin will be banished forever but everything is so interwoven and I am so afraid. She is the only one that can save me from my evil self but that is just like throwing a cat a fried fish and hoping it wouldn't eat it."

"This is so twisted. What if you win? Are you going to leave her and go your way or what?"

"I have not actually thought of that cos, all I have been thinking is that there is no way I would win. How would I make her fall for me, when I am someone else in the day and someone else in the night. "

"How soon is the full moon?"

"It's four months away."

"Wow! Then you have wasted enough time. You need to start acting fast Ichab. Odin is not resting you know."

"I know." He replied sadly. "I just don't know where to start from."

"Wait, what kind of a lame name is Ichab though? Is that a first name or what?"

"It's Ichab Nuel. When the witch kept casting the spell, she kept mentioning 'Odin' and that was how I became someone with double personalities. I guess it was just okay for us to be called Ichabod I guess. Odin came up with the name though."

"A fusion of a man and a beast, I understand. At least both of you agreed on one thing. Charming. So now, what's left is to find the lady, right?"

Ichabod nodded.

Adams stood up, banging the cup against the table. "First, we need to get rid of this ancestor's suits you have been wearing; you need a change of wardrobe. Thank God that Odin was wise and greedy enough to keep with him some gold from the past. Those are worth a fortune. I will sell that and we can finally start afresh and for God's sake, keep that ring on your finger. I am the only help you will have right now and from what I've seen, Odin knows how to mess things up and one more thing. You need a hair cut."