It's Not Easy Being Thirteen
A character study from Damien's Daughter
Some original characters added. Canon characters created by David Seltzer and Joseph Howard for the novelizations and also Seltzer for the screenplay of The Omen. Plus Harvey Bernhard, Stanley Mann, Mike Hodges, for the D: OII script. I own nothing. This is a Hollywood version of a Hollywood story and not meant to be an accurate description of anyone's religious doctrines or beliefs. This was written just for fun. Follows the history of my Why Me?: A Damien: Omen II Story.
Contains spoilers. So if you don't want to know what happens in Damien's Daughter please stop reading here.
The Ridgely Academy
Chicago, IL
August 1986
(Week of the 25th)*
The thirteen-year-old girl with the sunny blonde hair and blue eyes could only keep her mouth shut as she sat her desk. She took a black elastic band from the bunch that she kept tied around the handle of her silver hairbrush and put her hair in a ponytail.
She was just going to have to let her friend sulk on her bed. She was sworn to secrecy and that was something that she took very seriously. There was a time when you had to put your dolls in the attic away and start acting your age. Centuries ago there were Kings and Queens their age. Her friend didn't have all the facts and it wasn't her place to tell her. Only one person could tell her and he wasn't going to as long as she acted like a petulant child. It was her task to protect her friend, not only from the outside, but also from herself.
It was not Sarah McAllister's business to know why her friend was able to live. They knew each other ever since the junior high level at The Ridgely Academy. Ravender Thorn was always her roommate and friend and that never had to change.
Their school terms always started in the last week of August with a field trip to the friendly confines of Wrigley Field to see the Chicago Cubs play in a day game for the annual the Ridgely at Wrigley outing that ended with them getting their school schedules and settling in their dorms.
The boredom and hunger started to seep in as the baseball game was rained out. Because the cafeteria was closed the kids were left to their own devices to get something to eat. Sarah took a deep breath and turned around in her chair.
"Ravender, do you want to get something to eat?"
"Not with you I don't." Her father gave her bank card back. It really wasn't that difficult to walk to the diner around the corner.
"You aren't being fair."
Ravender sat up. "I'm not being fair? I forgot who I am talking to. O Worldly One. But I am the one who is immature."
"You are. Once you start acting your age or older I guarantee this will all make sense."
"How about if I never care?"
Sarah had to be careful. She hoped that was okay to word things like that. "That's your choice. I'm human – I have free will."
Her friend was only half-human. She could never handle the truth about her father being the Antichrist right now.
"Free will to be an asshole? That's some new-age mumbo-jumbo. If you are hungry, Sarah, go your own way and leave me alone."
"I can buy us a pizza."
"And we can paint our nails and gossip about boys? I'd rather stick my head in the oven."
"I…." Sarah started to say.
Ravender Thorn stood up. Why did people have to push her? "Fine. If you won't leave, I will. You can call Damien and tell him just how unfair I am being to you."
Before Sarah could respond her stubborn friend was already gone.
Outside
The air felt good on her face. She wasn't going to go the schools hang out. She'd rather go to obscure places to blend in with the crowd.
What if her father did win the presidential election? She'd never be able to go out for a walk like this ever again. If on the rare occasion she was able to, she'd have guards with her. She felt that was a false sense of security. Her late mother had lifetime protection and she still wound up being shot in the head. Ravender knew both Katie B. and her father were in on it. It didn't make any sense at all.
She came across a coffee shop with its blue blinking neon open sign and cup on a saucer motif with the pot that "poured" a brownish gold light. It was the kind of place where older people went to get away from the younger kids and that's exactly what she needed because she didn't feel like them at all.
Inside the Coffee Pot Diner
The seventeen-year-old boy with the long brown hair who had to wear it in a ponytail for sanitary purposes was wiping off wooden table when she purposely sat in the booth he was working on. Her instincts told her he had nice eyes and he did. They were bluish-green.
"Hi." She faked a coyness.
He smiled at her, "Hi, Ravender Thorn."
"How do you know who I am?" Then she figured maybe he saw her on TV when her father trotted her out on one of the local Chicago talk shows in the wake of her mother's passing. "What's your name?"
"Jesse."
She waited for the last name. "No last name?"
He nodded. He was so cute and a nice distraction.
"I'm hungry, but I don't feel like eating dinner. What's for dessert today?"
"Apple crumb pie with French vanilla ice-cream. Would you like a piece?"
"Sure," she started to get the card out of her jeans pocket.
"It's on the house. How is school?"
"It didn't really start yet. I'd rather know about you."
"There's nothing to know, Sweetiepop." He went behind the counter to cut her a piece of pie.
"Sure there is. Do you live around here?"
"I work here. How about two scoops of ice-cream?"
"I don't want to gain weight."
"You won't be, there is nothing wrong with a sweet treat. How is your father?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"I'm interested in politics."
"If you are eighteen you can vote for him, but I'd rather nobody did."
"Why is that?" He put down her plate and sat across from her.
"Jesse, won't you get fired?"
"No. So why don't you want anyone to vote for Damien?"
"Because then my life is over. And don't I deserve to have a chance at one?"
"You sure do, Sweetiepop. Eat up and I'll walk you back to school."
Ravender didn't know who this Jesse was, but she started to like him an awful lot.
Thorn Townhouse
Satisfaction in the Afternoon
Damien's Bedroom
That was strange and Damien did not particularly care for the unfamiliar.
Something was off. Yet, Katie B. was sleeping soundly in his bed next to him. This feeling did NOT wake her up and he was usually tired after good love making sessions.
He picked up the phone on his end table and dialed.
"Hello?"
"Sarah, it's me, Damien. Is Ravender there?"
"No." She bit her lip. She hoped that he would not be mad at her. She NEVER wanted to make Damien angry.
"Where is she?"
"She went out to get something to eat. She did not want to go with me."
Sarah was so happy to see her friend return so SHE could talk to her father.
"Let me guess." She took the phone out of her former friend's hand, "Father, I'm fine. I just got in. I went out to eat, because I don't particularly like my roommate. Am I barred from going out in public?"
"You have to be careful when going out."
What was this feeling? Even he had no words for it.
"Are we done talking?"
"Yes."
Of course, he wouldn't say goodnight to her. Jesse did. He even kissed her on the cheek.
"Where'd you go?" Sarah nervously inquired.
"On the corner of none of your business." She wished that she didn't have to leave Jesse. He was older-guy cool.
"Ravender, I do want to be your friend. I wish we could start over."
Did she really want to have this fight? "Well that all changed when you and your father left me alone in your summer house with no electricity. But – you are so worldly and sophisticated that it is only I – a peon – to be left in the dark without any information. I already know about Satan. My father told me. What else is there to know? But I'm supposed to bend over backwards and prove that I'm mature in order to be granted more information? You're all insane. My father included."
"You should be treating your father with respect."
"Why? He doesn't treat me with respect."
Sarah knew this conversation was going nowhere. "I still want to be your friend. I do love you, even if you don't love me."
"Love me?" Ravender laughed "That's a good one."
"I'll save you a spot in line tomorrow to get your Freshman green blazer."
"I can do that on my own. Stop trying to be my friend. I'm not yours. I'm going to take a bath and you can lie down and cry in your pillow over what you lost. I, however, have a friend." She was glad these suites all had private bathrooms.
"Who?"
"Not your concern."
"Is it a boy?"
She would not let up. "Sarah, you know what I'm going to do tomorrow? I'm going to the administrative office to get another room, a private one where I don't have to have any backstabbing and nosy roommates."
"Ravender, it'll be denied."
"Because you are supposed to protect me? Well here is what you are going to do. You are going to call my father tomorrow and tell him I said, I don't need protection and if I do, I certainly don't need it from the likes of you." She grabbed her nightclothes from the edge of her bed, went in the bathroom, and locked the door behind her.
"Damn it." Sarah sighed in frustration. Her friend was indeed stubborn. There was a better chance of a snowstorm in the Sahara Desert then Damien approving her request.
How was she going to get Ravender to like her again?
Whether Damien's daughter liked it or not, they were going to be tied together for life.
Satan and the Antichrist told her so.
Author's Note: Thanks to JoanMilton who looked this over for me. I figured, I'd put this up for a character study.
Also to the one 'Guest' who reviewed Damien's Daughter, it was not my idea to level the Thorn Museum, that was 20th Century Fox and part of the film canon. In The Final Conflict, the daggers were found in the rubble of the destroyed museum.
In my version I left the museum standing. I'm responding here because I can't leave replies on Guest reviews. And no worries, not every story is for everyone and Damien's Daughter is going to have a very slow build and there will be a plot twist and ending that might offend some readers, that is why it is rated 'M'.
I'm taking fictional liberty with the weather and whether or not the Chicago Cubs even played at home the week of August 25, 1986. And also of note, The Ridgely Academy is a fictional boarding school.
Thanks to everyone who take the time to read and/or leave a review for all of my stories. It means a lot.
Also note: As always, what I put up in these one-shots, will not always be how it will appear in the actual stories.