Dear Viewers: Wow, this is becoming more successful than I thought it would be! I'm trying to keep the "professional" feel to this story, but that's getting a little harder due to there being dialogue now. Nevertheless, hope you enjoy!
Chapter Two: The Man under the Mask
It was an odd moment. One second the caves were echoing with the voice of the gorgeous stranger, and the next they were still, as if time had frozen itself. Steve couldn't stop staring into the Enderwoman's large, glistening eyes, and she couldn't look away either. They indulged in each other's curiosity, wondering what the other person thought about them.
Steve decided to break the silence, with an offer of apology.
"Sincere apologies ma'am, I'll withdraw it right away."
He clasped the sides of the gourd, and slowly lifted it off of his shoulders. He placed it on the ground beside him, and looked back up at the woman. She hadn't looked away, no, for she was now staring with genuine surprise. Steve met her gaze, and she finally averted her eyes with a bit of color flushing to her cheeks.
"Wow, um... Geez, I don't know what to say. You're the first human to actually respond to me before, let alone take their pumpkin off their head."
The quietness that once hung over the two was now quickly building into awkwardness. With a bit of hesitation, Steve replied, "We could begin conversation by exchanging designations."
The visitor turned her head back to him in utter confusion. Steve paused, and explained his words whilst over-enunciating them: "Ask me my name."
Her face showed signs of a slight smile, as if he amused her.
"Alright then, what is your name?"
Steve returned the cute smirk before saying, "I am Steve. And your forename is...?"
"I'm Vanish, thrilled to make contact with you." She told him, mocking his formal tone and dialogue with a slight bow.
Steve broke out into a hearty laughter, and Vanish couldn't contain her merriment either. Their joyful noises ricocheted off of the cool walls of the caves, spreading out and filling every corridor. Within a few seconds, the volume of the resonance became too much for their eardrums to handle, so the two promptly stopped.
Vanish, after waiting for the echoes to end, looked at Steve and asked, "So what are you doing down here, anyway? Don't humans generally live on the surface?"
"We do," he replied, "but we occasionally embark on expeditions to the tunnels that lay below the soil. It can be challenging to believe the amount of beneficial resources and information that you may find whilst spelunking. I obtained the skills to communicate and transcribe with the number of journals and writings on the walls of the stone."
"Ah, so that may explain your 'big words'. You've been reading books that are thousands of years old, no wonder you talk like that!"
"It does not help that I have not witnessed another human being since the day I was brought into existence."
Vanish, with a slight pause, quietly stated, "Oh."
The awkward silence had returned to fall over them once more, causing Vanish to hurriedly ask, "Wait, so you haven't seen any other people before? I've seen plenty! They're all over the place!"
Steve, eyes full of hope and awe, inquired, "Really? You have seen more of my kind?"
Vanish began to answer him, but slowly closed her lips for a moment. With a bit of thought, she replied, "Well, it HAS been a while since I've met one... A long while... A few years even. I haven't seen any trace of them! It's like all the activity just, stopped!"
Steve's momentary optimism was crushed by these words, but he tried to hide it the best he could: "Oh, I see. That's alright though, I'm quite content just speaking with you."
Vanish was flattered by this, bringing the familiar purple color back to her face, as well as a shy grin. She turned away, before softly saying, "Well, I... Um... Thank you."
Suddenly, the torch started to fade, and flickered until it died, plunging Steve back into the darkness that he feared so much. He let out a small yelp, and hastily grabbed his satchel, removed his flint and steel, and relit the failed length of wood. The fire was small, but slowly began to consume the coals that sat upon the end of the stick. The light returned at a snail's pace, but Steve didn't care. He only wanted his holy protection from the dark.
Vanish, however, only looked at him with pure pity. She didn't seem to be afraid of the world at night, but she seemed to understand his fear. Maybe she had a phobia of some sort as well?
"You don't like the dark, huh? That's okay, a lot of humans don't like going out at night—Or so I'm told, anyway..."
"Do you have any 'irrational' dreads," Steve inquired, "Like arthropods, or altitudes?"
Vanish looked down at the ground, as if she were putting some hard thoughts into the matter. She started to reply, but closed her mouth again, and she began to blush even harder than ever.
Eyes still trained on the ground, she softly answered, "I'm afraid of rejection..."
Steve could almost feel the heat radiating off of her cheekbones, so he decided to say, "Oh, so like an atychiphobia?"
Vanish looked back up at him, and said with a shy smile, "I have no idea what you just said, but sure, I guess so."