3rd Times 22 is the Charm by Nadiah D.

Preface

Here's a bit of a backstory of Paranormal Activity 3. Katie, along with her sister Kristi, are the main characters throughout this movie. Their family, which consisted of these two sisters, a mother, and boyfriend, just moved into a new home in Carlsbad, California. Weird things begin to happen around the house, like a certain singing teddy bear constantly falling from a bed and turning on by itself, therefore leading the mother's boyfriend to begin video recording various parts of the house 24 hours a day. Kristi is the first one to see and interact with Toby, the demon who follows the two sisters throughout the entire series of movies. Toby increases the amount of trouble he causes the family, and soon massive pieces of furniture are being thrown around the house, which, of course, is all captured on the boyfriend's video cameras. Finally, the movie escalates at the end when Katie's mother, already dead, is being thrown off a staircase by the invisible Toby at the boyfriend. The boyfriend gets his back broken through being possessed soon after. Katie and Kristi are now both brainwashed and are now friends with Toby. The movie closes with the sisters and Toby walking back up the staircase, returning upstairs to Toby's domain.




















3rd Times 22 is the Charm

Katie, by now around 145 years old, moved into another new home in Carlsbad, California, a few weeks before. Again. After having lived through 90 house fires, 10 exorcisms gone bad, and 3 comet crashes, this was her 104th lifetime move with her 66th “boyfriend,” Bruce Kutcher. While one may think a 145-year-old grandma was most likely senile and decomposing by her age, she was still hanging on by a vein. How? Dyed hair jobs, manicures, and a 24-Hour Fitness pass she used once a year. Oh yeah, and Toby, her biggest fan and reason for still breathing. Even demons become lonely and bored without anyone to nearly kill all the time.
By this point, as expected, Katie had lost everyone she ever cared for: parents, siblings, past husbands, past “escorts,” friends, dogs, a gerbil, two daughters, rabbits, fish, and a son. For normal and not-so-normal reasons, none of her loved ones, not even Pebbles, her gerbil, lived out their life fully. Heart attacks from seeing Toby when he decides to show himself, cancer due to Toby, having their backs broken by Toby, being tossed down flights of stairs by Toby, and getting rammed in the face by tables, chairs, and forks by Toby were just a few of the “nicer” methods that Toby used to end their lives. Of course, after years and years and year and years of this, Katie became very lonely without companionship and had been relying on Craigslist to supply her with love. Unfortunately, these lovely escorts only lasted, actually lived, 2 years at most. Craigslist was suspicious of their disappearances and, therefore, disallowed Katie to rent “escorts” through them the month before. So, Katie decided to visit the one place she knew she could find cheap “boyfriends” without brains: Frat houses. Specifically, the one that made their applicants have intercourse with the “newly dead” at a local cemetery.
Bruce Kutcher did well at it. He spent his days tanning, part-time lifeguarding at the kiddie side of a neighborhood pool, and barely passing his college classes. Named after Bruce Willis and Ashton Kutcher, it came as no big surprise to him and his college friends when Katie knocked on their frat house's front door the day after the tryouts at the local cemetery. If Demi Moore had been born barely 5 feet tall, cross-eyed, with a gigantic nose, and with constant intestinal gas problems, you would have Katie 120 years ago. Things had gotten worse over the years.
“Hey babe, you lost or something?” Bruce asked at the front door, his 5'2”, shirtless figure asked at the front door.
“Oh my, my, my...” Katie gasped, enjoying her late afternoon view. This is how Bruce's “escort” services began for Katie.
Fast forward one month.
“Hey babe. Just got done with work. I was thinking we could cuddle and stay indoors tonight?” Bruce asked mischievously.
“Sure,” Katie responded. “How about we watch “Paranormal Activity 4?”
“Nah. That stuff is way too creepy for me,” he said. “But, I actually have a surprise movie we could watch.”
“Really? Tell me, tell me.”
“Nope. It's a surprise.”
Little did Katie know that Bruce's lifelong dream was to be a movie director with himself being the lead star. His lifeguard tower #6 consisted of an overhead video camera that focused and recorded his movements within the tower throughout the day. In addition to this, he even brought a helmet camera everyday to work that stared back at him rather than on the people he protected. This lifelong desire was something he didn't share with many people, which was unfortunate for poor, old Katie.
“So, what's the surprise honey? Why the popcorn and all?” Katie asked as her bones with barely any skin, was caressed by Bruce on the brown sofa.
“Okay. Well, I don't think I ever mentioned it to you, but I love video cameras. Especially video cameras focused on me,” Bruce said, chuckling at the end. “I even maybe want to make it to Hollywood with this face of mine. I mean, it's just... just a dream, you know?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Here,” and Bruce quickly grabbed the TV remote, clicked the power button, and slid back into the sofa, his smile growing larger.
When the TV finally focused in, Katie saw eight boxes filling the screen, all in HD quality. The rooms looked familiar, but...
“What is this? I mean, where is this honey?” she asked, hesitantly.
“Of course it's our house. I wanted to see myself, I mean, us, you know, around the house. Anyway, it's awesome, right?”
Katie barely heard him. The slow rumbling started at that point. Toby was back.
“Umm, Katie, honey. What's that?” Bruce asked, starting to slowly stand up.
“Seriously, Bruce, are you that dense? I'm 145 years old! Do you think I managed to live this long by luck? I have a pact with Toby!”
“Toby? Who's that? Another escort? What? You cheating on me?”
“No, no...”
“After all we've through this past month? You, me, your bed, us together in it, every night?”
“A demon! Toby is a demon. And you know what? He loves me,” she exclaimed, exasperated. “He comes back when people, idiots like you, start videotaping the house that I live in!”
The rumbling continued, and items, like various vases, mirrors, chairs, started crashing onto walls and floors throughout the house.
“This. Is. Awesome!” Bruce yelled, staring at the image of himself on the television. He quickly puffed out his chest and analyzed his posture on the TV. He was satisfied.
“What the hell are you doing?” Katie asked, while crawling under the table for safety.
“Look at me. In the face of certain death, I'm here, being a man!” he yelled over the house's shattering noises. “I love it! I save people everyday, and do I get any 'thanks' for it? No. Does anyone tell me, 'You're the man!'? No. But this house brings out, really brings out the image of me! Hell yeah, I'm 18 and ready for it all!”
Katie was wide-eyed, unbelieving of what she saw.
“So, so you don't hate me or hate what's happening here?” she asked, waiting to be yelled at by her hired boyfriend.
“Hate you? Definitely not. Where's that Toby friend of yours..” Just then, a knife whizzed by his face, creating a shallow slice on his left cheek.
“Whoa! What the--?” he exclaimed. He ran his fingers against the cut, smearing the blood down to his jaw. He saw human movement on the television of someone smearing blood on their cheek at the same time. He took a second to realize that it was him on the television. He smiled at himself.
Toby smiled at him too. But of course, neither Katie nor Bruce saw this. “Grrr. I kinda like this guy. Grrr.”
That night, Katie went to sleep with, finally, a real boyfriend who was with her for all the wrong reasons again. She had dreams of unicorns and having babies that evening.
That night, Toby didn't go to sleep, thankfully. Although he did prowl the house and he got to play hide-and-go-seek with himself since the video cameras were constantly on, he made sure not to disturb anyone since his new favorite toy slept soundly asleep.
That night, Bruce dreamt of fighting demons, defeating Voldemort, tripping the Grim Reaper, and high-fiving some tall guy named Toby.