Overkill
by Lincoln Trudeau
The last thing Randall Kage expected to see when he woke up was a man looming over him and an axe swinging towards his head."Dammit!" yelled the man with the axe as Kage rolled out of bed and crashed to the floor.Feeling a queasiness in his stomach from his body trying to wake itself up too quickly, Kage sprang to his feet and shook his head. He stumbled in the direction of his bedroom door...and smashed his face painfully on a wall right where the door should have been.What the hell is this? Kage quickly scanned the room and found the door, but it was in the wrong place. This CAN'T be my bedroom...and my bedroom doesn't have any axe-swinging maniacs in it either. Maybe I'm just dreamin'.Slamming the door behind him, Kage stood in a hallway in total darkness. He considered groping the wall until he found a light switch, but decided he'd need all the time he could get to escape the axe-man.Did somebody drug me and move me here maybe? Kage carefully took a step to the right, his foot searching for any obstacles which could slow him down. But that don't make sense. Why would someone drug me and then try to kill me when I wake up? He took a second step to the right. And where's "here", anyway? Hearing the bedroom door fly open, Kage made a run to the right, regardless of what lay ahead.And then he fell down a flight of stairs and landed on his back. He managed to stagger to his feet by supporting himself against a wall he found nearby. Christ, I'm lucky I didn't break my neck. What the hell was I thinking?There was a sharp clicking sound from above and then Kage's eyes were stung by rays of light from a chandelier on the ceiling. Seconds later, when Kage had adjusted to the light, he was staring directly into a mirror.That's not me in that mirror, dammit! The face in the mirror was not the long, grinning face of Kage, but the round pudgy face of a young man. Who the hell is that? The eyes he saw in the mirror were baby blue -- a stupid colour as far as he was concerned -- and Kage's eyes had always been brown and bloodshot. Who's been screwin' with my mind? Even the hair was different -- instead of a Charlie Manson hairdo and two days worth of stubble, there was a well-kempt goatee and a crew-cut direct from the armed forces.Then Kage realized who he was looking at and his eyes seemed to swell to triple their original size. That's Woody Mages...my first victim. But that don't make sense...that's friggin' crazy, man, Woody's DEAD, I killed the bastard myself...Noticing a flash of movement in the mirror, Kage spun around quickly and pushed himself back against a wall. He clung to it as though he was holding onto the side of a mountain to save himself from falling. Marching down the stairs with methodical slowness was the axe-man."Who the fuck are you?" Kage roared, almost hyperventilating as he struggled to figure out what was going on.Even before Kage's eyes reached the axe-man's face, he somehow knew who it was. The grin made up of crooked and yellow teeth, the shaggy hair, the bloodshot eyes -- the guy was a dead ringer for Kage.Well, this has GOTTA be a dream now. Kage tried to form a smile of confidence, but his trembling lips refused to co-operate. I wake up and all of a sudden, I become a guy that I killed more than five years ago, and I'm being chased by ME...oh yeah, that makes a lotta sense."You won't get far," said the axe-man softly, taking the tone of a mother trying to soothe an infant to sleep. "I promise you that."Those were Kage's words, formed by Kage's voice, but they came from the axe-man's body. For Kage, it was just too much. He turned around, screaming, and ran straight into the mirror, breaking the glass and cutting his face severely. He felt a sharp tug at one of his ears as he was dragged backwards almost two feet.Kage's peripheral vision could pick up only two things: the axe-man's face and the axe itself, the latter of which appeared to have been polished recently."Bedsy-bye time," the axe-man whispered. "Nighty-night, Woody."It's just a dream...Kage shook his head wildly from side to side as the axe-man raised his weapon in the air....a dream a dream a dream...The blade nearly touched the ceiling before the axe-man started his downward swing....a dream please just a dream a dream...The blade of the axe approached Kage's eyes and then he saw only pink and red flashes...and then nothing."I see you!" a voice called in the distance. "Time's up!"Kage was standing in the middle of a hallway with white linoleum tiling and cream-coloured wallpaper extending for at least fifty metres in either direction.What the hell...I just got killed and now...first I get an axe in my face, and now I'm standing in a hallway...ah, shit. Kage took a close look at the hallway and then slapped himself in the head, hoping it would straighten out his mind. It didn't work. I've been in this hallway before.Kage turned left, ran down the hallway and opened the fourth door on the right. Behind it, as he expected, was a luxury bathroom, and he locked the door. Christ, this is nuts, let's take a look in the mirror now, shall we?The face he saw in the mirror this time belonged to an ugly little middle-aged man with receding black hair and a smile that could freeze a forest fire. Even the man's nose was ugly -- it was disproportionately large for the rest of his face and it drooped slightly as if it was melting.Like the first reflection of "himself" he'd seen in the mirror, Kage recognized who he was looking at. Super -- I go from an ex-grunt to a miserable old fart of a librarian or whatever this guy is...dammit, I don't even remember his name...wait a sec...Kage saw a stack of magazines on top of the toilet and looked at the address label of the top one -- the name read Melford D. Lardwin. He also noticed the date of the magazine -- it was the September 1989 edition of Horse World.Can't believe it, just can't, no goddamn WAY, man...this guy was my...my third victim I think. But he died too, that's 'cause he was my victim, so I killed him, yeah, killed him dead...this is one weird dream, I stopped the heroin six months ago...Kage's thoughts were interrupted as the bathroom door was kicked open and smashed into the wall by a man wearing a tuxedo. The tuxedo guy, like the axe-man Kage had seen earlier, looked exactly like Kage except his hair was in a ponytail.Yeah, I remember the ponytail...I had to dress all nice and spiffy for that Melford Lardwin prick so he'd let me in his mansion, so I had to go with the ponytail or else cut my hair short...but I should be the guy who just kicked the door down...instead I'm an old rich stiff with a bad name...Kage's train of thought was derailed as a tingling sensation ran through his entire body and he dropped to the floor, paralysed. It was then he remembered that when he had killed Lardwin almost five years ago, he had used a gun."One through the neck," said the tuxedo guy smoothly as he bent over Kage's body and rammed the pistol up Kage's nose. "Insufferable, isn't it?"One thing Kage had always admired about himself was his ability to switch from calm to psychotic in two seconds flat. However, it was not nearly as commendable from the eyes of a victim.There was a gunshot and a streak of darkness and then Kage's brief life as Melford Lardwin came to an end."You crazy bitch, look what you've done!"For the third time, Kage was staring at a mirror image of himself without the aid of a mirror. This time, the man in front of him was wearing a red sweater, black jeans and a brown leather jacket. Kage saw he was inside a tiny kitchen with peeling wallpaper and cupboards filled to overflowing.He also noticed a gash across the red sweater man's forehead. Oh, God, not this one...Lorette Monifère, the sixth one I killed. She was the first one who ever hurt me before I killed her...but I...oh, Jesus...The red sweater man snatched a six-inch cook knife from the kitchen counter and pointed it at Kage, smiling and blocking out his pain. "Watch this," he said quietly before he turned around and left the kitchen. Kage used the break to leave the kitchen through the exit opposite of the one the red sweater man had taken.As Kage ran, he heard cries of "Don't, please, let me go!" in the distance followed by howls of terror and mortal agony. Then, abruptly, the screams were cut off, leaving behind only the sound of heavy breathing.I have to get away. Kage tried to remember where the back door was, but he'd only been in the house once before, and only then to satisfy his need to kill -- he hadn't spent a long time examining the layout of the entire house.Kage stopped as he reached a glass door, and saw his reflection in it. It was the face of a woman in her late twenties, with deep brown eyes and long blond hair. She was fairly attractive too, for all the difference that made to Kage now that he was running for his life. Just open the back door, who cares if you're a woman, at least you're ALIVE...It was the long blonde hair Kage had been looking at that prevented him from escaping just as he opened the glass door to leave. The red sweater man had a firm grip on Kage's hair and would not let go. "C'mon, I wanna show you something," he said, and then he dragged Kage to the kitchen by his hair. No, not this, c'mon, I don't wanna see it...Lying on the kitchen floor were the bodies of a middle-aged man and a young boy. That's her husband and her little boy...I killed them too...but they asked for it, she hit me in the face with that pot, so it's their fault and they had to pay, SOMEONE had to, dammit...And then the red sweater man threw Kage on the kitchen floor on top of the body of the little boy. Kage rolled away from the boy and started to crawl out of the kitchen when a foot stomped down on his ankle, crushing it. "Strip," the red sweater man commanded.Kage was sure he'd heard incorrectly. No way he can ask me to strip, I'm a guy, and I'm not gay or...but I'm in a woman's body, Lorette Monifère's...oh God, no, no, no...It was then Kage remembered that beginning with Lorette Monifère, he had decided ending a life was no longer a thrill, and torture and rape would be necessary to keep it interesting. My God, I'm gonna get killed again and then I'll come back as someone else and die again and feel more pain and come back...how long can it last? The papers said I killed...forty-seven...ah shit...Kage felt a slap sting his face. "I'm not kidding, woman," the red sweater man growled. "When I say 'strip', you do it or I do it for you and you don't want that."Though reputed to be one of the most dangerous serial killers in over a century, Kage was not completely devoid of emotions. When the red sweater man ordered him to strip the second time, he began to cry.I can't do it! Can't take off my clothes and let him...I can't, can't, won't think that, NO! Doesn't he know it's me in this woman's body? Doesn't he know he's hurting...hurting himself?"It's me!" Kage tried to yell, but it came out as a whiny shriek. "Kage, man, it's me, it's Kage, don't do this..."It took the red sweater man less than a minute to pull Kage's clothes from his body. The red sweater man undressed from the waist down and forced himself upon Kage.God, you can't do it, ain't fair, why why why why WHY?! It hurts...HURTS! God, I been hurt bad before, but not like this, never, impossible, supposed to be a man, GODDAMMIT! Why won't he stop, leave me alone, bastard, you're fucking yourself, son of a bitch...When it was over, the red sweater man put his pants back on, then raised his foot in the air and stepped down hard on Kage's face. It took two additional steps before Lorette Monifère -- and Kage's suffering -- died."I read your article, Mr. Keller," said the man with the ten-gallon hat, blue overalls and clodhoppers. "I've come to express my dissatisfaction."Victim number ten. Kage was dressed in a black cotton shirt and blue jeans and his hair was slicked back. Justin Keller, reporter for some paper called First Source. That was only about three-and-a-half years ago, November of 1990 I think. Kage was seated at a large oak desk surrounded by bookshelves inside a den.Justin Keller had been known for coming up with unusual insights on just about anything that could not be explained, and in an article in early November, 1990, Keller had successfully linked seven of the nine murders Kage had committed. Kage remembered killing Keller to silence him and it had worked.The man with the hat stepped closer to Kage and pulled out a switchblade from a pocket in his overalls, saying, "Keller, I think you should have quit while you were ahead." He took the tone of voice a coach might use to sound disappointed with his star player. "But since you didn't, so well...it's a business thing really. I've got to kill you. I'd do it real slow, but since I've gotta hurry to make my two o'clock, this won't take a second."Kage responded to the man's threats by retrieving a gun from the top desk drawer and switching off the safety. Knowing what's coming sure helps...I remember this Keller bastard almost killed me with that gun of his just before I plugged him...oh, shit, this guy in front of me...The man with the hat reached into a pocket in his overalls, and Kage knew the man was going for his own gun, a .38 Special to be exact.He's gonna shoot me, that thing's loaded to kill, so gotta shoot him...but that's Randy Kage up there in front of me...that's ME! How can I kill ME...The man with the hat fumbled with the .38 Special for a fraction of a second....if I kill him, I kill me, if he kills me, I die again...Three shots rang out, and then a man left the house."Ashes to ashes...dust to dust...may God have mercy on your soul."Justin Keller sat in the third row at Randall Kage's funeral, beaming despite the grim circumstances. Though he could not remember doing so, he had killed the maniac himself and had proved to everyone his off-beat ideas about unsolved events were worth looking into.A mob of reporters were at the funeral, but they had been held back by the police and told not to come back until the ceremonies were finished. As the minister concluded his long, drawn-out speech -- and for a monster like Randall Kage too -- the reporters were legally allowed to run around with their cameras and microphones. Some were begging the minister to open the coffin so they could take pictures of the three holes in Kage's face, a few more were waiting for Kage's body to be moved to the cemetery so they could tape the burial, but most of them were trying to get an interview with Keller."How did you know it was Randall Kage who murdered those people?""Did you fire in self-defense?""Were you at all afraid when Kage entered your home?""Didn't your neighbours notice him breaking in?""What's your favourite colour?""How do you feel about what you've done?"Keller thought carefully, then disregarded all but the last question. "How do I feel?" Keller winked obnoxiously at the cameras like he'd seen the bigshots do on television, and put on his best Mr. Smoothie voice to annoy the reporters."Well, I'm very thankful he didn't get me like the others. Still, the thing that gets me the most...I wonder how many lives I saved by killing him."
