Again, brief sighs of mild relief came from next to and in front of Annabelle once her second story came to an end. This was followed by a compliment from Luna, “Another great story we enjoyed listening to, thanks Annabelle.”
“One with a happy ending as well, just like I asked.” Malcolm jokingly added.
In spite of the aching in her body slowly returning now that she was done with storytelling for now, Annabelle had to laugh at that a bit. “Oh well, horror doesn’t always have to be about doom, gloom, and nihilism to be scary, you know…”
“True that.” Annabelle heard Henrik agree from the driver’s seat. “The whole thing was still pretty spooky like a lot of your works we’ve seen so far – which is why I found the ending to be all the more relieving and satisfying. I was genuinely rooting for the main character throughout the whole scene where he cut down the tree, and even would've cheered at his success if it wasn’t for our situation.”
In agreement, Malcolm almost immediately followed Henrik’s words up with, “Yeah, and now that I actually think about it… you also did a good job generating tension for the story without even a single casualty happening among the human characters. That’s a rare thing to see in horror, and definitely a bright change of pace from the bleak and brutal deaths we typically associate with it.”
“Glad to hear you all thought of it that way.” Annabelle replied with gratitude, while Henrik replied to Malcolm’s words, “Like say, Poltergeist?”
“Mhm.” Malcolm mumbled, before thinking aloud, “Huh, funny of you to mention that, when you consider that movie too features a creepy goddamn tree...”
Hearing this, Annabelle nodded and said, “You can say stuff like that have indeed worked as sources of inspiration when I came up with the story.”
Annabelle also heard Luna shift in her seat a little like she was turning around the best she could and say, “Interesting choice to choose a tree of all things to make a main antagonist out of. I never would’ve thought you could make an inanimate thing as threatening as the tree in your story.”
Malcolm let out a friendly snort at that comment, before speaking with weak laughter, “Explain that to Annabelle!”
“I’m sorry, what?” Henrik asked in what sounded like confusion, presumably not knowing what that was supposed to mean. Annabelle, however, did know what Malcolm meant, and couldn’t hold back a small snort of agreement in spite of herself.
“Oh, right.” Mumbled Malcolm in a joke apology, “Not ‘Annabelle’ as in you, I meant the demonic cursed doll.”
This time it was the other three who snorted with laughter, as Malcolm added, “And if you lot are wondering whether I mean the one from the Conjuring franchise or the real life equivalent that the former was based off of – I say, does it matter?”
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Normally if a group of people found themselves stuck in an accident similar to this, with one of them continuously cracking jokes like Malcolm was, it would’ve been considered tactless. However, considering what they were holding these conversations for in the first place, Annabelle was frankly thankful for Malcolm’s attempts to bring levity to an otherwise panic-inducing situation. And based on their reactions, so were the others, even though they knew it would most certainly pass if they kept waiting long enough. Hell, if it weren’t for all of them being stuck to their seats, Annabelle would’ve even welcomed some standup comedy at this point. Her fear and anxiety from when her phone died in the middle of calling for help seemed so far away the more she and her friends spoke. So if this was how things were to remain until they were out of here, Annabelle was more than fine with it as much as she hoped the rest of them were also.
With that in mind, Annabelle said to Malcolm, “Do be a bit more specific the next time you bring up either that doll or movie series in front of us.”
Annabelle could make out Malcolm’s shadowy silhouette in the dark nod at that, saying, “Will keep that in mind.”
“So yeah, anyway…” Luna piped up, “Way to make inanimate things like trees scary, as I was saying.”
“Though if I must say,” Malcolm added, “You just had to tell a scary story about a tree… while we’re surrounded by trees, huh?”
“What, were you scared that any of the trees out there might send bugs and snakes after us like in the story?” asked Henrik, presumably as his own attempt to momentarily lighten things up for them. "Or even put us to sleep?"
“Like hell I was.” Malcolm replied, “Ain’t nothing from the fictional story we just heard any scarier than our current reality.”
Annabelle froze on the spot she was immobilized to, not unlike the main character in her story when he saw his child self during his vision driven by the tree. A dismissible but still strange sensation had passed through her when she heard Malcolm say that; a sentence weirdly similar to what she used to think to herself back in the day when her state of mind was at its sickest.
But the sensation was also short lived, as Annabelle was brought out of her train of thought and back to earth when she heard Luna mildly complain to Malcolm regarding what he said, “Oh come now, don’t remind us…”
“Sorry, pardon my bad choice of words.” Said Malcolm apologetically.
Sounding like he wanted to change the subject to something else, Henrik quickly asked Annabelle, “So you said things like the tree from Poltergeist inspired you to create this story? Are you saying there are other ‘scary tree’ horror stuff out there that we don’t know of yet?”
Luna immediately joined in, most likely thinking the same thing as Henrik, “Yeah, I’m curious too now that you mention it.”
Putting the strange feeling from a second ago behind her and getting back into their conversation, Annabelle asked back, “Why, want some recommendations to check out in future?”
“Would be nice.” Said Malcolm.
Annabelle nodded to that, then went on listing a number of stories or movies she read and saw that featured any kind of scary plant life, all of which her friends enthusiastically paid attention to. Some minutes of that later though, Annabelle seemingly ran out of things to talk about at the moment. And at the same time, so did the other three.
“Now feels like a finer time than ever to hear another one of your stories, if that’s okay with you.” Malcolm muttered. “No pressure though, Annabelle – it’s just that me, Henrik, and Luna can’t seem to think of anything else.”
“Don’t worry about me.” Annabelle said somewhat reassuringly, “I’m just as relieved as you all to help keep ourselves at ease any way I can – and yes, I do have more material on my mind to tell, so here it goes…”