There were finger marks on his neck. He said the killer was a stranger like me. And a boat like mine had been seen going away from the shore.

Suddenly, my body went cold all over. And the hair on my head started to rise. For a horrible thought had come to me.

“I must see the body!” I shouted.

They took me to it at once. Yes, it was my dearest friend. It was Clerval!

I started to laugh. I couldn’t stop laughing. And the truth is, it wasn’t me who was laughing. I sounded in my own ears like my Monster. No, that wasn’t me any longer. For I, Victor Frankenstein, had lost my mind.

For two months I lay in a jail. What did it matter? I did not know it. Then, little by little, my mind returned.

Everybody was kind to me then. For the police had learned that I had not killed my friend. I was still on my island when it had happened.

They let me go. I got on a ship and returned to my country.

Chapter 9

Elizabeth and I were married soon after my return home. You may wonder why. Had I forgotten the Monster’s warning? “I will be with you on your wedding night!” he had said.

No, I had not forgotten it. But I’d had enough of being afraid of him. He will come to kill me, I thought. Fine! Let him come, then. For I will get him first! I had bought two guns and a long sharp knife. I hid them in my clothes and went to my wedding.

It was a beautiful day. And everyone at the wedding was happy. Even I. Later that afternoon, we said good-bye to all and left. Elizabeth had a house on a lake. It would take two days to get there. We planned to spend the first night at a hotel along the way.

By the time we got there, the sun was going down.