#196 Le Retour de Flamme

His immense shadow spreads out
Over Paris and the world.....
Robert Desnos: La Complainte de Fantômas

The world asleep &
dreaming out loud.

Emanations cohere;
fear personified. In-

stead of rain falling
sur les toits de Paris

it is the shadow of
Fantômas. Dressed

for his own on-going
opera, as large as the

life he lives in others'
dreams. They would

have him with a knife
in hand, but this is his

reality so he carries a
flower. It is a rose. They

would have him dead
but it is their dreams

that keep him alive. He
does not dream of them.

A THEATRICAL EVENT. Juve has been on the trail of Fantômas for quite some time. He crawls along the broken cobblestones of a mysterious passage. To guide himself he gropes along the walls with his fingers. Suddenly, a whiff of hot air hits him in the face. He comes nearer...His eyes adjust to the darkness. Juve distinguishes a door with loose boards a few feet in front of him. He undoes his overcoat in order to wrap it around his left arm, and gets his revolver ready. As soon as he has cleared the door, Juve realizes that his precautions were unnecessary: Fantômas is close by, sleeping deeply. In a matter of seconds Juve has tied up the sleeper. Fantômas continues to dream — of his disguises, perhaps, as usual. Juve, in the highest of spirits, pronounces some regrettable words. They cause the prisoner to start. He wakes up, and once awake, Fantômas is no longer Juve's captive. Juve has failed again. One means remains for him to achieve his end: Juve will have to get into one of Fantômas's dreams — he will try to take part as one of its characters. —René Magritte.