DAMIEN: OMEN II / THE FINAL CONFLICT

The Sergeant's Daughter II: My Boy Hears Voices


"Raynee...Raynee..."

I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, gently shaking me awake. I groaned; then I slowly opened my eyes. My vision was blurry with sleepy tears and I reached up to wipe them away. I then sat up in bed, yawning.

"Yes?" I said weakly. My voice was cracked from my crying outburst last night.

After Damien and I had come back upstairs, it took my a few minutes to finally get settled down. It took me even longer to fall asleep; Damien had to lull me to sleep by talking to me and saying soothing things to me. Needless to say, it worked. Damien was somewhat used to me not being able to sleep most of the time. He knew that it was due to my night-terrors that I would occasionally have.

My vision focused after a few moments and I saw Damien standing beside my bed, his hand on my shoulder. He smiled when he saw that I was awake. "Well, good morning, Princess...How did you sleep?" Damien asked, sitting beside me on my bed. He was still in his nightclothes and his hair was messy. I smiled back at him.

"Fine, thanks to you. I didn't have anymore nightmares- Actually," I paused, thinking. My eyes widened as I looked at Damien still. "I didn't have any dreams, come to think of it." I grinned; and Damien smiled back.

"Hey, that's great!" Damien said as he took my hand and lead me out of bed. "Paul and your father want to see us downstairs. They said they needed to talk to us." Damien pulled me along out of the bedroom quickly, nearly making me trip over my nightgown. My feet seemed to have a weird habit of getting caught in things. I was thankful Damien was there to catch me most of the time.

We both walked downstairs and into the living room. I looked to the windows; my eyes were shocked with the sight I was met with. I stopped dead in my tracks, making Damien do the same. "What's the matter?" I heard him say immediately. My mind sort of just went numb with shock and awe as I stared out to the window. Damien paused; seeing what I was looking at. "It's snowing..." He breathed as he let go of my hand and walked closer to the window pane. I followed behind him closely.

"I saw it before I fell last night. But, I thought I was dreaming..." I said as I came up behind him. I stared outside the window with him, looking out at the blanket of snow surrounding us. For a split moment, I envisioned us standing out there together. Just like when we were kids.

Damien pressed his hands up against the glass slowly and then he pulled them back. I scoffed playfully; making him look back at me.

"What were you expecting, Damien? For it to be warm?" I smirked, and he smiled back as he shook his head; then walked over to me.

"No, I just think it's a bit odd that it's snowing and it's the middle of March." Damien mumbled; He took my hand in his and smiled faintly. "Come along, love. Let's see what your father wants to tell us."

I nodded, smiling. "Alright."

We held hands tightly and walked towards our dining room. I held onto Damien's hand a bit harder than I usually did.

I was surprisingly nervous. My mind was racing more than it ever was. I was worried how my father was going to feel about this today. I knew he wanted the best for me and Damien, but we were still so young. Now that I think about it, my father has always been loyal to Damien. I remember when my mother wanted to enroll me in a Catholic school for girls; my father was immediately against it. Now I knew why! Even if Damien and I didn't know each other, we had always been loyal to him.

When we walked into the dining room, we were met with my father and Paul sitting at the table waiting for us. Paul smiled as he stood up, walking towards us. "There's the bride and groom to-be!" He laughed; making me smile. Damien chuckled and held my hand child.

"Good morning, Paul." Damien said, smiling widely.

I looked over to my father; and he slowly got up, coming towards us. I stayed silent, looking up at him. He smiled faintly.

"Hello, Raynee. Hello, Damien."

I nodded, smiling back. I had a feeling he was thinking about yesterday. My sudden outburst about wanting a baby, the crying, Damien rushing after me. It usually went.

"Good morning, Daddy." I forced a smile and tried not to succumb to the awkwardness of this situation.

I didn't really know what to say, honestly. Nothing could really release the tension. But, then again, this 'family' was used to it. I had had emotional outbreaks before countless times. Damien was used to it, Paul was, and so was my Father. Dad always knew I was sensitive and prone to overreacting.

Before anything else could be said, Damien and I noticed the food on our dining room table. Our plates had been made already and were covered in massive amounts of food. It smelled amazing. Paul took notice of my staring. "Looks good, huh?" He said. Paul walked back over to his spot where he usually sat. "We wanted to wait for you two to wake up before we started eating. And, you woke up just in time; it's still fresh."

Damien looked down at me and smirked. "We should eat now. I think it would be best to have full stomach during the ceremony, don't you think?" He said as he lead me over to my seat at the table. I sat down and looked at my full plate in front of me.

Blueberry pancakes, two fairly large pieces of toast with strawberry jam, and scrambled eggs with the same. I could never eat eggs without jam; my mother used to put grape and strawberry on them when I was little. They tasted bland and disgusting without a little sweetness. I looked over at Damien, seeing him sit next me. His plate had two pieces of toast, a few pieces of bacon, and plain pancakes. I knew he probably wouldn't eat all of his pancakes. He never did, so I knew I'd get some of them.

Again, just like yesterday, we sat in silence for the most part as we ate. I sat there quietly and took a bite of my eggs, glancing at Damien. He sensed that it was getting a bit awkward again and broke the silence.

"So..." He began before taking a sip of his orange juice. "How exactly is this ceremony supposed to work?"

Paul smiled and put his fork down; he looked at me and Damien. "Well, after we eat, you both need to get ready. We're going to follow the traditional route and have you two get ready an separate rooms. That way, you won't see each other until the ceremony."

I opened my mouth, about to say something.

"No." Damien suddenly spoke with force, but at the same time, politeness. I looked at him and smiled as he spoke again. "I want to at least help her get her dress on."

My eyes went back to Paul and my father and I nodded. "Yeah. I need help with my bows and lacing on my dress." My smile remained on my lips as I felt Damien's hand on mine.

Paul nodded and smiled back. "Alright then. It's your special day...both of your's. But right now, let's focus on eating."

Damien and I unlocked hands and I picked up my fork, begining to eat my pancakes. My hands were shaking a bit and I tried to conceal it.

What's wrong with me today?


After we had finished our breakfast and discussed the ceremony a bit more, Damien and I walked up to my old bedroom to get myself ready. The room was exactly like it was when we were kids. The same palest pink sheets were on my bed, which was still painted gold. If you looked closely at the sheets on the bed, near where I used to sleep, blood stains were near my pillow. I remembered comming in here whilst my stab wound was still bleeding. Of course, this was before I started sleeping with Damien every single night.

Damien walked over to my closet and opened it, looking for the dress I planned on wearing today. The clothes I kept in my closet were just the ones I didn't wear. Formal dresses andAfter five years, it still fit, much to my family's surprise. Damien smiled as he picked it up; he found it at the bottom of my closet where it had been laid after I had worn it the last time.

The night I was stabbed...

I shook my head in an attempt to get those damned thoughts out of my head. It was my wedding day for God's sake.

Damien walked to me and looked down at the dress in his hands.

"I haven't seen you in this since the Academy's ball in seventy-eight..." He laughed. I smiled, reaching out to the dress. "It's still beautiful. Didn't Ann help you sew a part of this?" I cringed involuntarily at Damien's words.

"Yes." I said as I slipped my nightgown over my head. I threw it to the ground and looked up at Damien, he smiled. I was still wearing a bra; a habit to leave it on whilst I slept. Damien held the dress out to me. I took it from his hands slowly, grabbing it by the straps and letting the skirt fall to the floor.

It looked the same as it did five years ago. Solid black satin bodice with lace sleeves, ruffled chiffon skirt, and a bow towards the side with three blue roses in the center. Damien chucked.

"You were the only girl in the entire cotillion wearing black. Everyone was looking at you in shock and awe...I felt so lucky to be the one escorting you around." Damien walked towards the dress that was held in between us. "May I do the honors?" He smiled widely as I nodded. Damien unzipped the dress and held the skirt open, then I stepped into the dress.

Damien pulled it up and I slipped my arms through the fragile, lace sleeves. He began to zip up the back, but paused. I looked back at him worriedly.

"Is it broke-?"

"Your scar." Damien cut me off quickly, looking directly at my shoulder.

Oh, no! I had completely forgotten about that damned scar! Of all places, why my shoulder?!

I laughed nervously, trying to get him off of the delicate subject on our lips. "Damien, it's okay. I'm sure my father won't notice. We need to focus on the ceremony anyways."

He sighed. "I should've protected you. I should have gone down there with you!"

My heart dropped. "Damien, are you insane?! Richard would've killed you! I mean, Ann probably wouldn't have let that happen, but she would've killed me next. Better me than you..." I turned to face him, holding the dress against me. "That's all that matters in this prophecy. Better me than you. It doesn't matter what happens to me as long as it's not you!"

"Don't you dare say that, Raynee! You know that I care about you!" I said nothing in reply and turned around. Damien zipped the rest of the zipper up and began to tie the ribbon around my waist.

"Damien, I hope you realize that sometimes you can't protect me. It'll put you in harms way." I said, sighing loudly. Damien shook his head.

"It's not fair that you have to be the one to get hurt though. What's going to happen when you eventually do get pregnant?" He spun me back around to face him once he had tied a large bow around my waist. And I thought for a moment, not able to come up with anything in response. He smiled. "Exactly."

I rolled my eyes and walked over to the vanity near my old bed. "It doesn't matter right now, Damien. We have to get ready."

I sat down, looking at myself in the mirror. The same face stared back at me as always.

Creepy. Fat. Disgusting. Sinner.

I pushed the thoughts aside; beginning to brush my hair. Damien came up beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. I relaxed a bit, feeling his warm touch.

"I'm sorry, Raynee." Damien breathed as he leaned down to kiss me softly. I smiled a bit, feeling him wrap his arms around me. "All I want to do is protect you. You know that, right, love?"

I nodded. "Of course I do, Damien. I've known that since day one."

He smiled, rising up from the hug and taking a strand of my hair within his fingers. "Do you plan on doing anything with your hair?" Damien laughed. I shook my head. "No. It never cooperates with me." I attempted to get it to pull back into a crude ponytail, but it fell apart quickly. Damien chuckled.

"Why not braid it?" Damien sat down next to me on the wide stood in front of my vanity and began to fidget with my hair. "I have an idea. Get me some hairpins."

I pulled open one of the many drawers on my dresser and procured some old bobby-pins. I handed them to Damien and he bagan to work on my hair as a waited patiently.


About forty-five minutes later, I was completely ready. Damien had run off to get ready as well; slipping into his old Davidson Military Academy uniform. We had found an old, black piece of tulle in Ann's closet. She had loved to sew and I had helped her a few times whilst she did. Damien clipped it to the back of my now up-did hair, and I really did look like a bride now.

I wasn't sure if I would have a bouquet or not. My father had said he had that covered, so I assumed he had bought me one with Damien's help.

I looked at myself one final time before walking out of my room.

My hair was pulled out of my face for once, I remembered. It was braided into one piece and wrapped around towards the back of my head, where it was pinned in place. My veil hung beneath it and went down to the hem of my dress. For once in my life, I felt beautiful.

"Raynee!" I heard Paul call my name from downstairs. "We're ready to start!"

I sighed, trying to blink away my tears of anxiety. I knew that from this moment onward my fate was sealed. There was no going back now.

From now on, I belonged to Damien Thorn.

"I'm comming!"