Spree: Fandom Frenzy

Chapter One: The Article

Ah, winter break. It gives people time to fall down the internet's rabbit holes, watch classic Christmas movies, whatever your little heart could desire. As the snowflakes fall down on this very chilly night, a teenager seems to be cooped up in their bedroom with a blanket drowning their torso. Their laptop was open as they sat on their bed, tilting their head to the side as they stared at a blank Google page on their screen.

"I am bored out of my mind...all my friends are asleep and I'm wide awake because someone said it'd be a smart idea to have caffeine at 8 fucking pm. And now we're here at 12 in the morning." They got a suggestion from Google to check out this website with articles on it. With being out of ideas, they clicked on the link that they were suggested.

They skimmed through the first article and saw how it was about something to do with the president again. They rolled their eyes, they didn't truly like anything to do with politics. So, they decided to look at the websites other articles in hopes of finding something intriguing. They kept clicking through old news articles. Some were about climate change, others were about what drama celebrities have been in and gone through.

"Is there nothing good here? I've been scrolling down so far, I'm in the 2019 stories!" They kept scrolling until they made it to when the articles were posted in April. Something popped out to this teenager, a old story on a app that is called 'spree'.

"Spree is a online source of transportation, as passengers rent and request cars and drivers." They read out loud in a more monotone voice. Their eyes went from the left of their computer screen to the right, reading this article and being very intriged. "A spree driver by the name of Kurt kunkle has been a five star rated spree driver for a long time." They paused "well, good for him I guess. Just means he was one of the better drivers there." They kept reading until they got onto the next paragraph. They seemed more hesitant now reading this.

"...Kurt kunkle wanted nothing more than to be internet famous. On April 19th, Kurt had livestreamed himself killing 10 passengers and left one, Mario Papazian, missing. The 'rideshare killer' has yet to be found. It was believed he had died from being hit by a car and being beaten to death with a blunt object, yet the police did not find his body at the scene, yet they found the body of his parents; Angela kunkle and Kris kunkle." Their face went pale as they finished reading that final sentence in that paragraph of the article. They went silent before finally speaking up. "...I guess he got what he wanted, to be famous." They shivered before skimming through the article again for a second time.

They noticed something that was starting to reduplicate. The paragraphs kept mentioning about 'TheLesson'. "The...lesson? What's the lesson?" They opened a separate tab and opened Reddit. They typed into it's search bar 'r/TheLesson' and waited for it to load. They yawned, feeling themselves start to get more sleepy as the caffeine started to wear off. Once the page had finished loading, it was filled with videos and photos of this man with greasy brown hair. "Does he just...not wash his hair? I guess that's a style for him." They noticed the dates as to when the posts were made, and noticed how his most recent one was posted on August of 2020. There was a huge time gap between that post and his second most recent. His second most recent post was published on April 19th, 2019.

"Wait a damn minute...so he still IS alive! How has he been avoiding the cops then?" They shrugged and started to watch the videos he had posted, starting with the most recent one from August of 2020. The video was of Kurt kunkle shirtless. His hair seemed to have gotten longer. He had a nasty cut on his eye, or where his eye used to be. "Hey kurties! It's Kurt from KurtsWorld, and I'm sorry I haven't been here much." The video kept playing. "I've been busy with some things and whatnot, but I promise once things are normal again I'll get back to live streaming. Alright, peace." And after that, the camera cut and the video ended.

"...Kurtsworld? I guess that's his brand or something." They opened another tab and searched up 'kurtsworld' into the browser. Many things popped up, yet they clicked the first link on the page. It seemed to have been a website where fans come together and talk about their 'idol' according to some of the texts they had glanced at. They kept digging down this rabbit hole, seeing photos of Kurt and his 'kurties' obsessing over him. "People are so weird..."

They scrolled down past the chats and noticed a link. They paused and clicked it, letting it load. It had redirected them to a Kurt cult meeting calendar. "....what-? People are still on about this?..when's their next meeting." They checked the calendar and noticed it would be two weeks after winter break had passed. "This Kurt guy seems interesting I guess...I'll stop by for their next meeting."