The Wild

Chapter 1

She laid on her bed like a corpse sobbing quietly. It was the first time she had ever cried, even as a baby; that is how her mother knew she was special. Maybe she cried because she did not expect him to be the one to do it, or maybe the situation was too overwhelming. Whatever the case, she would later learn something that would cause her to do more than just cry.

Brenda was born in Los Santos. She was the only child of her generation born from a Pule and because of that many of her peers respected her, while some were just envious. Her mother, Mary, was seen as a heroine because she was the first in five generations and in all of Los Santos at that time to conquer the annual La Gran Tentación (The Big Temptation) ceremony.

Ever since she was a little girl Brenda's dream has been to become a Pule just like her mother. In this city, it is believed that even though mankind has been able to dominate all that they have come across in ages past, they have failed to subdue only one: themselves.

La Gran Tentación is meant to single out the elites that have managed to achieve complete self-mastery, and in doing so it pounds on the door of the most primitive biological inclination of man and forces them to let it loose.

At the age of 16 human beings are at their most vulnerable to this inner craving. Instead of softly whispering in their ear as it did in previous years, it shrieks and claws at them and that is why for the La Gran Tentación ceremony it is the perfect age to put them into The Wild. 30 days are spent in The Wild during La Gran Tentación and a test before and after the last 15 days of the ceremony is taken to determine their worthiness to take part in it and also to determine if any Pules are found that year. However, boys typically never become Pules, they just don't have it in them.

To create a hunger for something one must feed themselves with it first, and for the first 15 days in The Wild that is done intensely. In the past 7 hours of the day would be spent watching it being done live with a group of all the teens turning 16 in Los Santos that year. However, with modern technology, this can be watched on the TV while neatly inclined on the couch in one's home along with parent supervision to ensure that the minimum 7-hour requirement is met. For the next 15 nights, all of the 16-year olds along with all those that failed La Gran Tentación in the previous two years are all put together in one large room, with hundreds of curtained sections with beds, beer, erotic music and with one rule: no one is allowed to be dressed.

29 days had passed within La Gran Tentación and Brenda was cruising through, and why wouldn't she be? For the past 2 years, her mother had been training her every day to become a Pule through mindful meditation to take captive any compromising thoughts, controlled breathing to suppress arousal and self-mind-wiping to remove any memories that would linger and probably jeopardize her chances to passing the test. Brenda and Mary were without a doubt that she had it in the bag because she was already halfway through and there was nothing that could ruin her chances.

After Brenda got back home in the morning after the 29th night her father came to give her an early congratulations and last few words of encouragement, or so she thought. She was in her room meditating and wiping her minds of all the nasty things she had seen the night past; the last two nights are particularly gruesome because those are when them that have been holding on finally crack under the pressure. Her father never locked the door behind him when he entered her room, but this time he did, however, she did not give much thought to it. They were sitting on her bed together, and it was awkwardly quiet after he had asked her how she was doing and she had poured out her heart to him about how confident she feels about her becoming a Pule. He then whispered unapologetically "I'm sorry," and he did it, with a sinister smile on his face. While he did it, she did not make a sound, she was in shock, paralyzed by the sight of her father taking away from her the one thing she's been dreaming about her whole life.

After he had pulled up his pants and fled, she laid there on her bed weeping and trying by all means to wipe the tragedy that had just happened from her mind. This though she could not mind-wipe, it was a wound not only in her mind but also in her heart and it was beyond all the techniques she had learned. Not only was her body pierced, but even her heart and they both bled. So, she laid there and cried softly until her mother came home a few hours later, and she could not stand or sit up because the pain between her legs and in her heart was too heavy for her to bear.

Brenda laid on her bed all day and all through the 30th night. She was disqualified from the ceremony because she did not attend and news spread like wildfire throughout all of Los Santos. Mary did not understand why Brenda was like this because she wouldn't speak but she gave her time and comforted her every way she could. She would be in for a rude awakening after finding out what happened to her only child and reason as to why her husband disappeared without a trace.

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