Vex
Pulling into The Keep I can’t help but feel a sense of home. I may have spent the last six months in Texas earning my patch, but The Keep, no matter how good or bad the memories, will always be home to me. Parking my bike next to my brothers, I throw my leg over, waiting in front of the main building for Dex, our Prez to say a few words. This is a big moment, and glancing at my biological brothers, I can see they agree.
Dex stands on the steps in front of the double doors that lead into the place where the Elders would meet to decide our fates. No more. No more ruling women and children with an iron fist, no more selling of infants, no more using and abusing those weaker than them. The Keep is a place of healing and now, with the DRMC at our backs, we can help even more people.
“DRMC Keep Chapter, welcome home.”
My brothers roar at the declaration, and I take a deep breath in, the surety of being home settling in my bones. Dex opens the front doors, and we step inside what will be our clubhouse. The main room Eden’s Keep families dined in will be our common room, the hall and rooms coming off that will house us andany new members we add. The meeting room at the back that once held punishment, is now going to be cleansed and where we meet for Church. The small homes and cabins where Eden’s Keep families used to reside are now used for the people we house before helping them reintegrate into a world some never knew, and some forgot existed.
Gazing out the main front window, copper catches my eye, as it always has.
“When are you going to make your move, brother?” Omen asks. I have to remember that’s Dom’s name now. It’s hard going, but in some ways it helps me relate to some of the people who come through our gates.
Since my little sister had more balls than the rest of us, and shut down Eden’s Keep for good, we’ve cleaned it up and opened it as a sanctuary for those who need a place to start fresh. That fresh start includes new jobs, new backgrounds, and new identities. Struggling to remember my brother’s road names is only one small way in which I can relate to the people we help. Well that and the fact I grew up in a fucked up religious cult who washed their hands of us in our late teens, giving the old, powerful men more access to young women.
“She’s not ready,” I murmur to my brother, watching Loyal smile gently at a little girl on the swings.
“She’s stronger than you think brother. She saved the children and the worthy when Blanche went on her rampage. She’s been running this place while you’ve been away. Hell, she and Justice set up the working community for the families who wanted to stay.” Omen states, matter of factly.
He’s right. Growing up Eden’s Keep was self-sufficient. Gardens, livestock, orchards. Everything a secret community would need to keep things ticking over and our runs to the grocery stores limited. Once Blanche got rid of the Prophet and his men, we were at a loss as to what to do with Eden’sKeep. It was decided that we would keep it and turn it into a sanctuary for those who need help. In order to run in the best way possible Loyal and Justice came up with a plan to split the expansive property. On one side we have our working community. Homes for the people whowishedto stay. Those we deemed trustworthy who wanted to work the land as they always had. The only difference is that this time all profits are paid to those who earn them. There is no tithe. Those who work the land have the freedom to run businesses, to move off site to nearby Adonner or to live as they always have, at Eden’s Keep working for the community here. On the other side of the community businesses, set well back from the road and behind security fencing sits The Keep. The heart of our operation.
“I think you might be the one who’s scared, big brother,” Saint says, with a shit-eating grin.
“I’m calling Church in ten minutes. Vex, can you please ask Loyal to join us? We need a run down on what’s been happening and who we have at the Keep.”
I nod at my Prez, welcoming the order to talk to Loyal. It’s gotten easier over the past year. When I first arrived here with the DRMC and Blanche ready to burn the place down, I was surprised at the woman who greeted us. Gone was the shy girl who I watched disappear into herself before I was banished from Eden’s Keep. In her place was a fierce woman, someone who spent her time getting people out of the Keep to the capable hands of my sister. Or so I thought. Her tendency to flinch every time a man got near her or raised his voice never escaped my attention, no matter how rigidly she held herself.
Pushing through the doors I make my way outside, pausing on the steps as I take in the sounds of laughter, slightly rusty from underuse, but laughter nonetheless. As a child Eden’s Keep was a paradise. A place where likeminded people with a love of God could gather together. My father, Mercy Landry, startedEden’s Keep on family land sick of the direction the “outside world” was going. He wanted more love, more kindness, so he decided to make a place where we could exercise that. Royal, his brother and our uncle, had a way with people and words. He’d preach the lifestyle and in time Eden’s Keep grew from a small commune of three families, to a bustling place over thirty families strong. Then came the subtle changes. Instead of being Mark Landry he became the Prophet Mercy Landry. The men they used to call brothers became “Elders”. There was a council who would make all the decisions. When Mary Grace’s husband died she quickly became the second wife to Elder Hopeful, the members informed that it was an ideal way to help Mary through her grief. Then more wives were being taken. When the women of age were all married off, wives started getting younger, and the young men, like me and my brothers were sent away. Looking back now it’s plain as day what was happening, but as a teenager in Eden’s Keep we had been trained to be obedient.
Loyal, no matter the fact she was a girl when she was married off to a man decades older than herself, somehow found a way to make what few choices she could make matter. Within the strict confines of Eden’s Keep and with contact with my sister Patience, who changed her name to Blanche, she found a way to save others who needed saving.
I move closer to her, a smile tipping the corners of my lips as I watch her dust off the knees of a young girl who had tripped. The little girl wipes her tears on her sleeve and gives me a brilliant smile as she runs off, heading to a woman with a riot of curls, just like hers.
“Vic, you’re home,” Loyal smiles, hands clasped in front of her. I smile at the posture, it’s something she has always done.
“Yeah, ah, we pulled in just before,” one of my hands finds its way to rub the back of my neck. For some reason Loyal has the ability to make me hyper aware of myself and my surroundings.
“Oh, I would never have known, not with the rumble of what sounds like the end of the world,” she rolls her eyes at me, giving me a shy smile.
“Oh, she’s got jokes, huh?” I laugh, relaxing into the conversation.
She shrugs one shoulder, looking a lot like the girl I always wanted to take on a picnic. We stand in silence, Loyal’s face tipped up to mine, waiting. Probably for me to say something. Anything.
“Oh, we got new names. Me and my brothers.”
Her eyebrow raises as she tilts her head. “Did you need new names?”
“Well, now we’re in a motorcycle club, we have road names. Mine is Vex,” I point to the patch on my chest, and then feel like a total dork. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me.
I’m not a virgin. I’ve had quite good success with women. Not too many, as my father’s early sermons about casual sex and debauchery kinda scared me and my brothers shitless, but I know enough about women to know that it’s not normal for me to be fumbling this bad in front of one.
“Vex,” Loyal says softly, her plump lips moving around the word. “How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with your words?”
“Job 19:1-2,” I smile.
“Fitting,” she huffs gently.
“How so?”
