In an instant, as if a spell or curse had been lifted, the man dropped her hand, clapped his own together and widened his smile. He appeared to be in complete joy.
"Nothing. Nothing at all!", he exclaimed, "I'll do all the work from here. You just need to fall".
The man wrapped his arms around Clara's waist and hoisted her on to his left shoulder.
She let out a short scream from the unexpected lift and started to struggle. A wave of fear surged through every cell in her body as she recalled his last words- 'you just need to fall'.
Clara struggled further, screaming and shouting, knowing what was coming next. Through the struggle, she could see that the mysterious figures had stopped moving, and that the man appeared to be whistling an odd tune.
Even in her panic, she couldn't help but notice how impressive the man's strength and grip was. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get loose.
"This won't hurt half as much as you're expecting it to! Not at all, in fact", the man cheerfully stated, gripping his struggling captive.
Clara was terrified and immensely confused. Not long ago, she was at home cooking dinner, then the next minute, she was atop an awfully strange mountain of some sort, being chased by mysterious, shadowed creatures.
Now, she was about to be thrown to her death by a strangely joyful man, whom she had placed all of her trust and faith in to, whilst the figures that she originally believed would have been the source of her death, remained static in the distance.
Clara felt the wind picking up speed and quickly began realising that she was nearing the edge of the mountain top. Her struggling increased, but the man held his grip.
"I trusted you! Why are you doing this? Who are you?!", she screamed.
"I'm really sorry about this, Clara. I'll explain everything soon!", the man yelled back, trying to ensure he was heard over the powerful force of wind.
In an instant, Clara felt the man's grip loosen and the wind dramatically pick up speed.
She was falling.
She screamed as she plunged downwards.
"The blue one is yours!", the man yelled after her.
Clara couldn't even comprehend what the man was yelling about as she was plummeting to her death. She could not help but wonder, even in her frantic panic, what exactly had just happened. She closed her eyes and accepted her fate.
This is where her story was to end.