True, he only meant to make him quiet down. But it was a child’s throat! William stopped moving. My dear, sweet little brother was dead!

At first the Monster thought, Oh! What have I done? But then—THEN—he was glad! He laughed and shouted, “This is how I shall punish my enemy!” He shook his big fists at the sky and screamed, “I have just begun!”

Around my brother’s neck was a little chain. There was a picture of a woman hanging from it. The Monster looked closely at it. The face was lovely. And it made him think of Agatha. He took it from the dead child and left.

A little farther on, the Monster came upon a farmer’s barn. I can hide here, he thought. Opening the door, he went inside. But the barn was not empty. A young woman lay sleeping on a pile of straw.

Silently, he went closer to look at her. She, too, had a lovely face. A face like Agatha’s. Tears came to his eyes. He bent over her and whispered in her ear, “Awake, my dearest love. And come away with me forever.”

The girl started to turn toward him. And suddenly my Monster became afraid. No! No! I dare not wake her, he thought. She will look at me like all the rest! She will show me how she hates me! She would never love me—never! Then the Monster grew very angry. And he decided to punish her.

He took the picture and hid it among the sleeping girl’s clothes. The police will find this, he told himself. They will think that it was she who killed the little boy. Ha! Ha! They will put her to death for it. While I will still be free! Free to laugh and laugh in the face of Victor Frankenstein!

Chapter 5

You may wonder what happened to me during all of this. Well, I had been ill for a long time. My friend Clerval had taken care of me. But I never told him about the Monster. No, it made me even sicker to talk about it. And Clerval would never have believed me, anyway.

I was getting better when a letter came from my father.