The sun had gone down, and the moon was just rising over the sea. I was sitting alone in my laboratory, staring at the unfinished work in front of me.
There was no longer enough light to continue.
I sat there, wondering whether I should stop for the night or force myself to finish as quickly as possible.
Then a terrible thought came to me.
Three years earlier, I had sat in this same way, working on the first creature I had ever created. I had believed I was doing something extraordinary.
Instead, I had created a monster.
His violence had destroyed my happiness and left me with a lifetime of guilt and regret.
And now I was preparing to create another being.
But what did I know about her?
Nothing.
She might be even more dangerous than the first creature. She might enjoy violence simply because she wanted to see others suffer.
The creature had promised to leave human society and live far away from civilization. But the woman I was creating had made no such promise.
She would have her own mind.
She might refuse to live with him.
She might even hate him.
The creature already hated his own appearance. What if he hated her too when he saw that she was just as deformed as he was?
And what if she looked at ordinary human beings and preferred them to him?
She might leave him.
If that happened, he would be alone again, and his anger would become even worse because he had been rejected by someone of his own kind.
Even if the two of them left Europe and disappeared into the wilderness of another continent, there was another danger I had not considered.
They would probably have children.
Those children would grow into a new race of monsters.
Then their descendants could spread across the world until human beings themselves were no longer safe.
I suddenly realized what I was doing.
Had I really been given the right to risk the future of the entire human race simply because I wanted to save myself?
I had once allowed myself to be frightened into making this promise.
The creature had threatened me until I could no longer think clearly.
But now, for the first time, I understood how terrible my promise truly was.
Future generations might curse my name.
They might remember me as the man whose selfishness had endangered all of humanity simply because he wanted to buy himself a little peace.
I was trembling when I suddenly looked toward the window.
There he was.
The creature was standing outside, watching me in the moonlight.
A horrible smile spread across his face.
He had followed me all the way here.
He had hidden in forests, caves, and empty stretches of land. He had watched me from a distance throughout my journey.
Now he had come to see whether I was keeping my promise.
I stared at him.
His face was filled with hatred and deceit.
The thought of creating another creature like him suddenly became unbearable.
Overcome with anger, I grabbed the unfinished body and tore it apart.
The creature watched me destroy the being whose existence he had been depending on.
He let out a terrible cry of rage and despair.
Then he disappeared into the darkness.
I left the laboratory immediately and locked the door behind me.
Inside myself, I made a solemn decision.
I would never continue that work.
I went to my room with shaking legs.
I was completely alone.
There was no one nearby to comfort me or distract me from the horrible thoughts filling my mind.
Hours passed.
I sat beside the window and stared at the sea.
The water was almost perfectly still.
The wind had died down, and everything seemed peaceful beneath the quiet moon.
Only a few fishing boats moved across the water.
Every now and then, I could hear the fishermen calling to one another.
The silence was so deep that I barely noticed it until I suddenly heard oars moving through the water near the shore.
A few moments later, someone stepped onto the island.
Then I heard my door creak.
Someone was trying to open it quietly.
My entire body began to shake.
I already knew who it was.
I thought about waking one of the islanders who lived nearby.
But fear froze me.
I could not move.
It was like one of those nightmares where you know danger is coming, yet your body refuses to obey you.
Footsteps moved along the passage.
The door opened.
The creature I feared most entered the room.
He closed the door behind him and came toward me.
His voice was low and full of anger.
“You destroyed the work you had already begun. What do you intend to do now? Do you dare break your promise?”
“I have suffered because of you,” he continued. “I followed you away from Switzerland. I traveled along the Rhine, hiding among the trees and hills. I spent months in the lonely parts of England and the wilderness of Scotland.”
“I have endured cold, hunger, exhaustion, and misery. And now you have destroyed the only hope I had.”
I looked directly at him.
“Leave me.”
“I am breaking my promise. I will never create another creature like you, just as ugly and evil as you are.”
His expression changed.
“Slave,” he said coldly, “I tried to reason with you before, but you have shown that you are not worthy of my kindness.”
“Remember that I have power over you.”
“You think you are miserable now? I can make your life so terrible that you will hate the sight of daylight.”
“You may have created me, but I am your master now.”
“Obey me.”
“The time when I was uncertain is over,” I replied.
“Your power over me is over too.”
“Your threats will not force me to do something evil.”
“In fact, they only make me more certain that I will never create a companion for you.”
“Am I supposed to calmly release another monster into the world—a creature whose greatest pleasure is death and suffering?”
“Leave me.”
“I have made my decision, and nothing you say will change it.”
The creature stared at me.
His face twisted with helpless rage, and he ground his teeth.
“Every man has someone to love,” he cried.
“Every animal has a mate.”
“Why should I be the only living creature condemned to loneliness?”
“I once had the capacity to love. What did humanity give me in return?”
“Hatred.”
“Disgust.”
“Cruelty.”
“You may hate me, but you had better be careful.”
“Your life will become filled with fear and misery.”
“Soon something will happen that will destroy whatever happiness you still have.”
“You can destroy every other feeling I possess, but you cannot destroy my desire for revenge.”
“Revenge is now more precious to me than food or sunlight.”
“I may die one day, but before I do, I will make you curse the day you were born.”
“Remember this.”
“I have nothing left to fear, and that makes me dangerous.”
“I will follow you patiently, like a snake waiting for the right moment to strike.”
“You will regret what you have done to me.”
“Stop,” I shouted.
“Do not fill this place with your hatred.”
“I have already told you my decision.”
“I am not afraid of your words.”
“Leave me.”
“I will not change my mind.”
“Very well,” he said.
“I am leaving.”
“But remember this.”
“I will be with you on your wedding night.”
I rushed toward him.
“You villain!”
“If you intend to destroy me, make sure you survive long enough to do it.”
I tried to grab him, but he was too quick.
He escaped from the house and ran toward the shore.
A few moments later, I saw him climb into his boat.
He pushed away from the island and crossed the water with astonishing speed.
Soon he disappeared into the darkness.
The island became silent again.
But his words remained in my mind.
I was filled with such anger that I wanted to chase him and throw him into the sea.
I paced around the room, unable to control myself.
A thousand frightening possibilities passed through my mind.
Why had I let him escape?
Why had I not followed him and fought him to the death?
But it was too late.
He was already heading toward the mainland.
I could not stop wondering who would become his next victim.
Then I remembered his final warning.
“I will be with you on your wedding night.”
So that was when he intended to strike.
That was when he expected to kill me.
The thought did not frighten me as much as I expected.
But then I thought of Elizabeth.
I imagined her standing over my dead body, crying and mourning the man she loved.
For the first time in many months, tears filled my eyes.
I knew I would not surrender without a fight.
Morning eventually came.
The sun rose over the sea, and my anger slowly faded into a deep, hopeless sadness.
I left the house where the terrible confrontation had taken place and walked along the shore.
The sea seemed like a huge wall separating me from the rest of humanity.
For a moment, I almost wished that it really were a wall I could never cross.
Perhaps I could stay on this barren island forever.
It would be a lonely and miserable life, but at least nothing unexpected could happen to me.
If I returned home, I might either be killed myself or watch the people I loved die at the hands of the monster I had created.
I wandered around the island like a ghost.
I felt completely cut off from everyone I loved.
Around noon, I lay down on the grass.
I had been awake all night, and my nerves were exhausted.
My eyes burned from lack of sleep.
Eventually, I fell into a deep sleep.
When I woke, I felt strangely calmer.
For a short time, I almost felt like an ordinary human being again.
I could think more clearly about what had happened.
Yet the creature’s words were still in my mind.
They sounded like a death sentence.
The whole encounter seemed almost unreal, like a nightmare.
But the fear it had left behind was painfully real.
By late afternoon, I was sitting near the shore and eating an oatcake because I had become extremely hungry.
Then I saw a fishing boat approaching.
One of the fishermen came ashore and handed me a packet.
Inside were several letters from Geneva.
There was also a letter from Henry.
He begged me to come to Perth and join him.
He said he had been wasting his time and that his friends in London were urging him to return so he could continue making arrangements for his plans in India.
He could not postpone the journey much longer.
He wanted me to spend as much time with him as I could before he left.
His letter brought me back to life in a strange way.
For the first time since the creature had appeared, I felt that I had something to look forward to.
I decided to leave the island in two days.
But before I could go, I had one terrible task to complete.
I had to pack my scientific equipment.
That meant returning to the laboratory.
I would have to touch the tools I had used to create the second creature.
Even thinking about it made me sick.
At sunrise the next morning, I finally gathered enough courage to unlock the laboratory door.
The remains of the unfinished creature were still scattered across the floor.
Looking at them made me feel as though I had torn apart a living human being.
I stood there for a moment, trying to control myself.
Then I entered the room.
With trembling hands, I carried my equipment outside.
But I could not leave the remains where the islanders might discover them.
They would be horrified.
They might also become suspicious of me.
So I placed everything into a basket and covered it with a large number of stones.
That night, I would throw it all into the sea.
Until then, I sat by the shore and cleaned and organized my scientific equipment.
My feelings had changed completely since the creature appeared that night.
Before then, I had believed I had no choice but to keep my promise, no matter what happened afterward.
Now it was as though something had been removed from my eyes.
I could finally see clearly.
The thought of beginning the experiment again never even entered my mind.
The creature’s threat still haunted me, but I no longer believed that obeying him could save me.
I had made my decision.
Creating another monster like him would be an unforgivable act of selfishness.
I would rather face whatever punishment he had planned than risk the future of humanity.
Around two or three in the morning, the moon rose.
I carried the basket to a small boat and rowed several miles away from the island.
The sea was almost empty.
A few boats were heading toward land, but I deliberately moved away from them.
I felt like a criminal carrying out some terrible secret.
I wanted no one to see me.
At one point, a thick cloud passed over the moon.
The sea suddenly became almost completely dark.
I used that moment to throw the basket into the water.
I listened as it sank beneath the surface.
Then I turned the boat away and continued sailing.
The sky soon became covered with clouds.
The northeast wind grew colder, but the fresh air actually made me feel better.
I decided to stay on the water for a while.
I fixed the rudder so the boat would continue in a straight direction and lay down at the bottom.
The sound of the boat moving through the waves gradually relaxed me.
Before long, I fell asleep.
I do not know how long I slept.
When I opened my eyes, the sun was already high.
The wind had become much stronger.
Large waves were hitting my little boat, and I realized I had been blown far away from the island.
I tried to change direction.
But the moment I turned the boat, water began pouring inside.
I had no choice but to let the wind carry me.
For the first time, I felt genuine fear.
I had no compass.
I knew very little about this part of the world.
The position of the sun was not enough to tell me where I was.
I might be carried far into the Atlantic.
I might die slowly from thirst and hunger.
Or the sea might simply swallow me.
I had already been out for many hours.
My throat was burning with thirst.
I looked up at the sky.
Clouds raced across it, constantly replaced by more clouds.
Then I looked at the sea.
It seemed as though it was waiting to become my grave.
“Monster!” I cried.
“You have already won!”
I thought about Elizabeth.
I thought about my father.
I thought about Henry.
They were all far away from me, completely exposed to the creature’s revenge.
The thought was so terrible that I fell into a state of despair.
Even now, when I am remembering those events, I still shudder at the memory.
Several more hours passed.
Then the sun began to sink toward the horizon.
The wind slowly weakened.
The violent waves became calmer, although the sea remained heavy and unsettled.
I was exhausted and sick.
I could barely hold the rudder.
Then, suddenly, I saw land in the distance.
A high coastline appeared to the south.
I was almost too tired to understand what I was seeing.
But the realization that I might survive filled my heart with sudden joy.
Tears came to my eyes.
How strange human beings are.
Even when life becomes unbearable, we still cling desperately to it.
I tore part of my clothing and used it to make another sail.
Then I turned the boat toward the land.
The coast looked wild and rocky.
But as I moved closer, I saw signs of human settlement.
There were boats near the shore.
I realized that I was approaching civilization again.
I followed the shape of the coastline until I saw a church tower rising behind a small headland.
I was extremely weak and desperately hungry.
I decided to head straight toward the town.
Fortunately, I still had some money with me.
As I rounded the headland, I saw a small, orderly town with a good harbor.
I sailed into it.
My heart filled with relief.
I had escaped.
I began securing the boat and adjusting the sail.
Several people quickly gathered around me.
They looked at me with obvious surprise.
Instead of helping me, however, they began whispering among themselves.
Their expressions were strange enough that under different circumstances I might have become alarmed.
But I was too exhausted to care much.
I noticed that they were speaking English.
So I addressed them in English.
“My good friends, could you please tell me the name of this town?”
“And where exactly am I?”
“You’ll find that out soon enough,” a rough-looking man replied.
“You may not like the place you’re about to stay.”
“But you won’t have much choice.”
I was shocked by his rudeness.
I also noticed that the people around him were staring at me angrily.
“Why are you speaking to me like that?” I asked.
“Surely English people don’t normally treat strangers this way.”
“I don’t know much about English customs,” the man replied.
“But here in Ireland, we have a habit of hating villains.”
As he spoke, more people gathered around us.
Their faces showed a mixture of curiosity and anger.
I began to feel uneasy.
“Could you at least tell me where the nearest inn is?” I asked.
No one answered.
I started walking.
The crowd followed me.
More people joined them until I was completely surrounded.
Then an unpleasant-looking man stepped forward and tapped me on the shoulder.
“Come with me, sir.”
“You need to go to Mr. Kirwin’s house and answer some questions.”
“Who is Mr. Kirwin?”
“And why do I have to answer questions?”
“Is this not a free country?”
“Free enough for honest people,” he replied.
“Mr. Kirwin is a magistrate.”
“And you are going to explain how a gentleman who was found murdered here last night came to be dead.”
His words shocked me.
But I quickly recovered.
I was innocent.
That could easily be proved.
So I followed him without arguing.
He led me to one of the finest houses in the town.
I was barely able to stand because of hunger and exhaustion.
But with all those people watching me, I forced myself to remain upright.
I did not want my weakness to be mistaken for fear or guilt.
At that moment, I had no idea what was about to happen.
Within minutes, a new disaster would fall upon me—one so terrible that it would make me forget all fear of shame, punishment, and even death.