"This is the very worst wickedness, that we refuse to acknowledge the passionate evil that is in us. This makes us secret and rotten." - D.H. Lawrence (The Letters of D.H. LLawrence)

For years, it lay buried deep within the psyche of the man known simply as Kane. A festering cancer, slowly rotting him from the core out. A disease of evil-and whether he planned it, that evil was bound to take over.

As it turned out, the trigger for that possession was a rather simple, yet powerful act-the forced removal of Kane's mask last June on Raw. It was almost as if the physical mask was merely a symbol of the psychological mask that Kane had been wearing since the tragedy that claimed the lives of his parents. Once gone, the floodgates were opened. No longer was there anything holding back his true nature, the monster lurking just below the surface, the real Kane.

"When they made me remove my mask, I felt ... free," Kane told us in an exclusive interview. "Liberated at last from the restraints put on me by a weak society that made me wear the mask in the first place. It was such an exhilarating feeling, showing my true self for all those lying, hateful fans to see. Almost as exhilarating as chokeslamming Rob Van Dam straight to hell."

Kane's new attitude may have shocked fans more than the sight of his face, but it shouldn't have come as a surprise. Fans knew who he was all along. Maybe they forgot over the course of the four years of making Kane one of the most beloved competitors in WWE history. And that is a credit to the man himself, who tried so hard to fight what he really was - a monster.

But in the end, the outcome of Kane's fight against his personal demons was inevitable. Since 1999, when Kane first seemed to reform and transform into the benevolent creature fans loved, he developed into a sympathetic figure whose tortured existence and almost child-like innocence caused people to open their hearts and pity him. It certainly was a far cry from the vicious beast that inspired sheer terror when he burst on the scene at In Your House: Badd Blood '97, ripping the steel Hell in a Cell door off its hinges.

"I haven't altered myself," a seething Kane explained. "Not my true self, anyway. This is what I am. People chose to believe in the fantasy that they created, the fantasy of the gentle, misunderstood Kane. And when I couldn't live up to that fantasy anymore, they turned on me like the backstabbers they always were. I knew they were laughing at me all along. You may call it pity, but I call it morbid curiosity. They liked staring at the freak, they got their kicks from my deformity. Now, when I release my aggressions on someone in the ring, when I savage them without mercy, it's them that I'm thinking of."

This anger has its roots way before Kane ever set foot in WWE, as long-time fans are aware. It goes back to the fire that took the life of his parents, burned their funeral home to the ground, and left young Kane with scars that would never heal.

"They told me my burns were only superficial, but I knew better," he said. "They couldn't feel what I felt, They didn't experience it. How could they know what it felt like? Only I knew that the burns are seared deep in my soul. Right then, I knew that no one would ever understand me - I was alone, and I always would be But I didn't care, because I knew if they couldn't feel my pain on their own, I could make them."

It's never been revealed exactly how long Kane felt the need to wear a mask, but it's safe to assume it was well before Paul Bearer first brought him to WWE six years ago. By then, the monster had been fully formed, the product of a twisted childhood filled with bitterness and alienation.

There was nothing touchy-feely about the hulking masked behemoth who wreaked havoc in WWE in those early years. There was no doubt what he was all about: anger and destruction. But something happened along the way. Like the Frankenstein monster, Kane became an unlikely tragic hero who fans-many of whom felt similarly isolated at times-could identify with.

"That's your opinion, not mine," Kane points out. "All I saw out in that crowd, night after night, were phonies and liars. I helped them feel better about themselves. And I got tired of being their scapegoat."

In time, Kane became more humanized. For the first time since childhood, he started talking. Slowly, his costume became less mysterious, revealing more of the body he had been covering up, as well as some of his face. Fans and WWE Superstars got comfortable with Kane, like a scary toy they were once frightened of as kids, but eventually grew attached to.

But like the little girl in Frankenstein who plays with the monster only to wind up at the bottom of a lake, the fans got burned when the inner Kane revealed himself last June. But no one moreso than Jim "J.R." Ross, who, on the July 14 Raw, was set ablaze in one of Kane's most heinous, despicable acts ever.

"He felt my pain," laughed Kane when questioned about the incident. "J.R, sure loves a barbecue, but I don't think that's one he had in mind. I warned him not to make fun of me. But I could see it in his eyes right from the beginning of the interview. He was repulsed by me, and laughing on the inside. I could see it. He always talked about how I came from hellfire and brimstone-well, now he knows what hellfire is like."

If fans didn't fully realize how over the edge Kane had gone, then the sight of a screaming Jim Ross writhing in flames at his feet certainly painted a clear picture. It's hard to imagine how anyone couh set another human being on fire, let alone someone as universally likes as J.R. But the look on Kane's face as he did it told the whole story: No, hesitation. No remorse.

Perhaps Triple H was closer to the mark than anyone thought when he talked last year about revealing the hidden, dark side of Kane. Although no one gave him much credence at the time due to his reputation for treachery, "The Game" may have actually been onto something. It's easy to imagine that Triple H's taunting struck a nerve in a man working so hard to contain his inner demons. For all we know, the first cracks in Kane's mental foundation may have been forming ever then.

The list of those who have betrayed or tortured Kane is long: Paul Bearer, Undertaker, Chyna, X-Pax Tori, Triple H and so many others. All that pain was internalized, creating a core of burning hatred within him that was sure to one day reach critical mass. That day has come.

Kane no longer needs pity. He no longer desires affection-maybe he never did. All he desires now is fear and suffering, and the fear and suffering of the WWE Superstars which fans love. The monster is unleashed. And as it was for his Biblical namesake, whose shattered ego saw him destroy his family, there is no going back. Not for him. Not for any of us.

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