It was a few hours after midnight in the Tanner house, Uncle Jesse had fallen asleep in front of the TV after staying up late to watch a Documentary on Elvis but it had finished two hours ago so now all that was showing on the TV was static. The Family's Dog, Comet was running in and out of the bedrooms as everyone slept but not everyone was asleep. Five year old Michelle Tanner was woken up by something or someone calling out to her and she shot a glance towards her sister, Ten year old Stephanie who was sound asleep.
"Steph?" Michelle whispered "did you say something." There was no response so Michelle got out of bed and headed downstairs, following the sound of whatever was calling to her until she saw the static filled TV and with a curious look on her face, Michelle slowly walked towards the TV and knelt in front of it.
"Hello?" she called out "did you call me, speak up dude!." She yelled so loud that it woke up the rest of the family and Jesse woke up to find the little girl kneeling in front of the TV, yelling at the static but Michelle didn't seem to acknowledge him or the rest of the family as she continued talking to the TV.
"I'm Five" she replied with a smile "yeah, where do you live? really? okay, you got it dude!" she gave a double thumbs up at the TV before placing both her hands on the screen as the rest of the family looked on with confused expressions. The next morning, the family couldn't figure out why Michelle had got up in the middle of the night and started talking to the static on the TV.
"You know, she could have started sleepwalking" Becky suggested "kids do strange things when they sleepwalk. When I was six, I used to sleepwalk and my Dad found me having a conversation with a bush in our back garden." Meanwhile, DJ was telling Kimmy Gibbler about Michelle's midnight conversation with the TV static.
"I swear, it was really freaky" DJ pointed out "she was just kneeling in front of the TV having a conversation with it, like it was a real person. You know, it kind of reminded me of that film, Poltergeist."
"Maybe you guys have a Poltergeist" Kimmy pointed out.
"I don't think so, there's no such thing" DJ replied.
"Yeah but Michelle's talking to the static on the TV, just like the kid in the movie and look what happened to her, she gets sucked through her bedroom closet and into the TV, who's guessing that isn't going to happen to Michelle" Kimmy implied "and maybe the house is built over an old cemetery and the ghosts want revenge." DJ could only roll her eyes at that remark and pointed out that there was no way that the house was haunted or built over an old cemetery whilst up in the attic, Michelle was paying a visit to Jesse and the twins Nicky and Alex where Jesse decided that he should ask her about why she was talking to the TV static the night before.
"Come here a minute shorty" he said as he picked her up and set her down on the couch before sitting down next to her "now I want to ask you something."
"Go ahead" Michelle replied "you can ask me anything you want."
"Well I was just wondering about last night" Jesse stated "when you were talking to the static on the TV, why were you doing that, do you remember doing it?"
"Yes I do" Michelle replied matter o factly "I do remember talking to the TV."
"Well do you mind me asking who exactly you where talking to?" Jesse asked the little girl and she stated that she was talking to the people that lived in the TV and she began explaining that they were trapped and needed some help to be freed, that they think she was the one who could help them.
"That's adorable, you've got yourself some pretend friends" Jesse replied, thinking it was all just innocent child plays with little knowing that it was going to lead up to something more sinister "you know, when I was about your age, I had an imaginary friend who lived in the fireplace and I would spend hours sitting by that fireplace, talking to him."
"They're not pretend" Michelle insisted "I really heard them speaking to me." That evening, Jesse was telling Danny about his discussion with Michelle about why she was talking to the TV night before.
"Should I be worried?" Danny asked "because if my little Michelle's started sleepwalking then maybe i should take her to see somebody."
"Well she knew that she was talking to the TV" Jesse replied "she said that she was speaking to the people who live in the TV and I think that they could be imaginary friends."
"So all of this is just some phase that she'll probably grow out of?" Danny asked.
"Sure" Jesse reassured him "didn't DJ or Steph have imaginary friends when they were little kids?"
"Well now you come to mention it, DJ had an imaginary friend called Sir Chicken Mcnugget when she was about Michelle's age" Danny explained "she said he looked liked a giant chicken nugget with a face, a moustache, arms and legs and spoke with upper class British accent."
"Guess having imaginary friends must run in the family" Jesse pointed out "I had one, DJ had one and now it looks like Michelle could have one."
"Well maybe I should have nothing to worry about, after all, you, DJ and Michelle were not the only ones who had imaginary friends" Danny revealed and Jesse stared at him, realizing that he too had an imaginary friend as a child.
"So what was your imaginary friend called?" Jesse asked the older man and Danny pointed out that his imaginary friend was a human toilet brush that went under the name of Mr. Walter toilet brush which Jesse found to be very amusing. Meanwhile upstairs in the bedroom of the two younger Tanner sisters, Stephanie was doing her homework whilst Michelle was doing a puzzle in one of her puzzle books when a flash of lightning suddenly lit up the room making both girls jump.
"What the heck was that?" Michelle asked, eyes wide with fear just as Danny walked in to tell the girls that it was time for bed but Michelle stated that there was a thunderstorm outside and that there was no way that they could go to sleep with the racket going off outside.
"Well there's a little trick I learned so I could be able to tell when the storm was moving away" Danny said as he picked Michelle up and put her in bed "now when you see the lightning flashing, you count until you hear the thunder and every time you count a little then that means the thunderstorm is moving away."
"Are you nuts?" Michelle asked, not believing a word.
"No it actually does work, shall we give it a try" Danny suggested and when there was another flash of lightning, he Michelle and Stephanie counted up to about three when thunder could he heard rumbling over the house.
"So much for it going away" Michelle replied with a hint of disappointment in her voice.
"Well I bet you the next time, you'll reach at least four or five, what do you reckon, want to give it another shot the next time you see any lighting" Danny suggested.
"Fine but if I can't get past 1, then I'm coming in your room" Michelle warned. Danny chuckled before kissing both girls goodnight and leaving the room as Michelle and Stephanie started counting again after seeing another flash of lightning but after a few hours, both girls ended up in Danny's bed as the storm had become too frightening for the two of them. It had just gone past two thirty in the morning when Michelle awoke yet again to something calling out to her and went downstairs to where the static filled TV was glowing again like the night before and she had became entranced by it's haunting glow. A mischievous smile swept across Michelle's face as she slowly walked towards the set and knelt in front of it, listening as she heard voices speaking.
"Are you coming?" she whispered, stretching out her hand to touch the screen, only for a wispy ghost like skeletal hand shot out at her, causing the little girl to jump back before trails of ghostly smoke began flowing from the TV set slowly, hovering over the girl before it shot out, causing the whole house to shake.
"Dad, what's happening?" Stephanie asked Danny after the pair of them got woken up by the sudden earthquake "and where did Michelle go?" The pair of them ran out of the room as pieces of the ceiling crumbled down onto the bed.
"Oh look at this mess" Danny stated but Stephanie told him this wasn't the time to be worrying about the bits of ceiling on his bed just as DJ and Joey came running out of their rooms and Becky, Jesse and the twins came rushing down from the attic.
"Dad, what's going on?" DJ asked "and where's Michelle?"
"I think I know" Danny replied when he noticed the flickering glow coming from the living room and they all ran down stairs despite the continuous shaking of the house which abruptly stopped once they reached the bottom to find Michelle standing in front of the TV like she was in shock.
"Michelle honey, are you okay?" Danny asked and Michelle slowly turned around with a smile on her face that was to sophisticated for a child her age and announced something very shocking to the rest of the family.
"They're here!".
"Who's here?" DJ asked.
"The TV people" Michelle replied with a exaggerated eye roll "Duh!"