Michael Boccacino

Earlier this month, I asked readers and Twitter followers to vote on what they’d like me to post for Halloween… either a “Trick” or a “Treat”. The vote was unanimous, and so without further adieu is your Halloween “trick” — an epilogue to Charlotte Markham and the House of Darkling entitled “Bedtime Stories”…

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When twilight came, the Balthazar Hotel bled into sunset. Its deep scarlet walls tainted the clouds with red sleep as the …

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Last night, I dreamt the ghost of my mother had begun to haunt my family’s home during Christmas. I could see her reflection in the glossy ornaments that hung on the pine tree in our livingroom, and in the frosted windowpanes; a smoky presence standing beneath the mistletoe. My sisters and I would ask her questions and speak to her, and though she would respond as best she could without being able to speak, it …

Last night, I dreamt I was asked to be in Thor 2. I arrived on set in full Nordic-god regalia, complete with my own hammer. They slathered me in make-up and told me to stand on a hill, away from filming, until they were ready for me.

I practiced swinging the hammer over my head by the leather strap looped through its handle. Storm clouds gathered overhead, but instead of summoning lightning from the heavens, …

Last night, I dreamt that the orbit of the Earth had tilted closer to the sun. From space, the holes in the ozone layer became visible, their edges blistered white and flaking away. My dad drove a few friends and I to Miami to retrieve some MacGuffin of incredible importance and value. We had limited time in the city, for a storm was coming, and when it hit nothing would survive.

The city existed as …

Last night, I dreamt of a house on a hill. I arrived there with my mother, who has been dead for seven years, and my grandmother. Throngs of people queued up on the lawn waiting to get inside. We followed them through living rooms and up many staircases until we were nearly to the attic. A young girl asked us to remove our coats and place them on little wooden knobs set below a slanted, …

Last night, I dreamt that I had to go to Colombia for a business trip. When I arrived at the hotel, my sister Stephanie was waiting in my room with my yellow Labrador Retriever, Kelly. Though she died just over ten years ago, the dog happily greeted me with wagging tail and tongue.

“Why did you bring the dog?” I asked her.

“So I wouldn’t get lonely.”

“Does the hotel staff know that she’s here?”…

Last night, I dreamt that I was at Walt Disney World wearing a jacket filled with explosives. I had to take it off before it blew up, but the park was so crowded with people that I couldn’t find anyplace to safely get rid of it. I eventually located a quiet corner near the exit and slid off the jacket. Nothing happened. I shrugged my shoulders, put my coat back on, and headed into the …

Last night, I dreamt that my little sister and I stepped off an old-fashioned steam train and into a small mid-western town at the start of the 20^th century. It was night, and as we left the station, we found ourselves surrounded by people wearing multicolored eye masks. Vendors sold them on street corners, unable to sell them quickly enough for the oddly eager townspeople.

“What’s happening here?” I asked a man who passed …

Last night, I dreamt that my dad had started dating Giada De Laurentiis, and as part of their courtship, he decided to cook dinner for her. He spent all day and night in the kitchen, trying to impress her by roasting vegetables I’d never heard of before. When he realized that he needed something from the store, he sent Giada and I to a nearby market.

We walked side by side through a little European …