In Chapter 16, the monster is the victim of an injustice again. After his "adopted family" rejects him, he seeks to find Victor in Geneva. Along the way, the monster is shot through the shoulder after he saves a little girl from drowning in a stream. Recognized and shot as a villain, he is not seen as the savior he really is. He curses all men and, "inflamed by pain," he vows "eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind." He passes a fall, winter, and spring in the woods, traveling at night to reach Geneva.
In a search for food and shelter, the monster encounters young William Frankenstein and kills him. He claims, "I too can create desolation, my enemy is not invulnerable; this death will carry despair to him, and a thousand other miseries shall torment and destroy him." The monster takes the locket from William, goes into a barn for rest, and finds Justine sleeping in the hay. He puts the locket of William's mother into Justine's pocket.
