I had a strange dream. I could describe it as a contemporary punk rock version of the Phantom of the Opera with emphasis on the phantom’s murders through the eyes of the American slasher genre. It was another very violent dream, with some vivid images of the violence.

Okay, it had my friend Chris and me as the detective types. Erin, Chris’ little sister, both IRL and in the dream was the new up and coming rock star. The action all took place in this moderate sized club with a tremendous backstage area filled with the kind of junk that accumulates in old theaters.

What was particularly interesting about this dream was that it played once as the “original movie” and then it played again as the sequel/remake.

In the first run the killer was this hulking, tall, fat theater owner. There was no character development and the only hint that he was the murderous phantom was that he looked creepy and menacing. It was as if the director took the actor who plays the slasher and put in him in another role wearing something other than his normal character attire. There were no redeeming qualities to this phantom. There was nothing presented about his all consuming love for the new star of the theater, he just watched her with hungry eyes.

In the first run it was a pretty standard phantom of the opera story. The new star comes into the theater. Makes waves. The established diva is jealous and upset. Strange murders start happening. Chris and I investigate the murders. One scene we are questioning the diva and she asks if I am into medical dosing. Apparently this is the use of over the counter drugs at very high does to get a high. I say yes and don’t know if I am bluffing or if my character used to actually be into that. Then I swallow a hand full of pills that she hands me as she calls me bluff.

Eventually I figure out that the phantom has an elaborate setup behind all the junk backstage. There is a whole series of tunnels and secret passages that connect a lot of different area. He has been using these as his method of escape. By this time lot of people at the theater are outraged with the killings. There is all of the readiness for an angry mob to form. I enlist people into a team with me and we go into these areas and set a trap for the phantom during the day.

That night the phantom tries to attack but we are lying in wait and we chase him off before he can kill anyone. He retreat to his secret tunnels but then gets caught in out traps. He is totally shocked that anyone could find out his secrets and that disables him as much as the traps themselves. He felt as if the entire theater, people and building had turned against him whereas before the building had been his secret ally.

Now that everything is safe again they have the final announcement of the winner of the completion between the performers at the club. Erin had done an incredible breakthrough performance due to her fear that she might be killed by the phantom and her desire to do her best while she still had the chance. I was selected to announce the winner and I was enormously proud to announce Erin as the winner and was overjoyed to be near her in the spotlight as she took the grand prize.

Then the dream went back in time and started the second run.

I retained the knowledge of how the phantom had done everything so I was going to try and stop him even before the first murder. I was going to change the story.

There was a cage around the master control panel for the power to the theater that was located backstage. This cage was normally locked with a giant padlock during performances. There was secret way to raise the entire cage to access the control panel. There was also a secret tunnel entrance hidden behind a huge stack of old junk beside the control panel.

For the first murder the phantom had used this trick to run off the power and nobody had been able to turn it on again until the key was found and the cage unlocked. I waited for him to turn off the power and stalk his victim then I used the secret method to raise the cage and restore the power quickly. He was almost caught but just barely managed to get away.

Then he proceeded to successful carry out new murders very quickly and in unexpected ways. I had given the phantom the info that he had an enemy who knew his secrets. Yet I was one enemy alone, I did not have the public outrage of the masses against the phantom. He used his knowledge to plan around me.

There was never the slow rise of anxiety about the phantom. By stopping the first murder I had changed the sequence of events in ways that hindered my efforts to stop the phantom. Erin never had her fear of being killed and thus was never inspired to delivery her breakthrough performance. At the end of the competition I had to announce that another girl had won because she had given the strong performance in the completion. I felt sad because I had the memory of the way it could have gone.

The phantom felt invulnerable yet there were a few others working against them. Janitor there said something along the lines of, “He is a hard entity to kill.” From this I got the impression that the Janitor was also in this kind of repeating sequence and had to contend with the phantom in many iterations of this story. He ran after the phantom up a flight of circular stairs. I called for him to come back. I knew it was impossible for him to directly fight the phantom. I saw the phantom cut through the janitor’s neck and his head began to slowly slide off. I turned away not wanting to see such detailed gore. Instead I merely hear the sick wet sounds of the janitor’s head bouncing down the stairs.

Then I woke up.