The Golem and The Creature

The Golem

When I opened my eyes, I didn’t know who I was or where I was. I had no language, no thought, no memory of any kind.

It lasted for only a moment, but I remember that moment so vividly.

The moment of nothing.

And then just as quickly in the next moment, my head was full of knowledge.

I became aware of my body and the room and the people in it.

I became aware that everyone was standing around me in a circle, with the man at the head.

I became aware that this man was who had brought me to life.

“You’re alive,” he murmured, as if he couldn’t quite believe it himself.

I rose and stood in front of him, causing the others to gasp.

“What is it you want me to do?” I asked.

He paused, looking me over from head to toe.

“Kill them,” he said quietly, “Kill them all.”

A Golem is referenced in the Torah in the book of Genesis. It is a word used to describe Adam when he is incomplete. When he is only made of dust and clay and God has not gifted him with a soul.

Golem.

A soulless creature made from the earth.

Rabbi Herschel brought me to life by writing the word EMET on my forehead. It means Truth and is one of the names the Jewish people have for God. It is made up of three letters, one of them being the aleph. If you erase the aleph, Truth becomes Death, and the Golem disappears.

I knew this like I knew I was made from dust and clay.

I knew this deeply.

“Kill them all,” he had said.

When I went to investigate who ‘them’ was, it was evident immediately.

Looking out the rabbi's window, I could see soldiers marching around, pointing guns at anyone they deemed a threat.

“How long has this been going on?” I asked.

“A year,” the rabbi replied, “Maybe two. Things happened so gradually. But now they are taking us away. And we don’t know where.”

“But there are awful stories,” chimed in a woman standing to my left, “Stories of camps in the middle of nowhere. No food. No water.”

“Gas chambers,” mumbled an older man to my right, “They throw us in, and we don’t come out,” he said looking at me with tired eyes.

I went outside and was met with screams from the soldiers.

They shot at me, which did nothing since I was not really alive to begin with.

I destroyed each and every one of them that was in the ghetto that day.

I broke arms, shattered skulls, tossed them in the air like they were made of feathers.

When it was done, and their bodies lay strewn on the ground, I turned toward the rabbi.

He was looking at me in horror, which confused me, since I had only done what he had asked.

“Are there more?” I asked.

He nodded.

“Many more,” he said.

“Where?” I asked him.

The soldiers were everywhere. All across Europe. I left Rabbi Herschel and began to walk in the direction he had shown me on his map.

I wasn’t quite sure if I was right about where I was going, but I knew that if I kept walking, I would run into the soldiers eventually.

“Try to stay hidden,” the rabbi had said.

 I made sure to keep to the woods as much as possible. Being as large as I was, it was the only path I could take that would give me some discretion. I did most of my traveling at night for the same reason.

During the day, I moved slowly. If I saw soldiers in the woods, I slaughtered them. There was no mercy on my part. No regret or remorse.

A Golem is made to serve, and I had my task.

One evening, I came across a group of children sitting around a fire, dressed in soldiers’ attire.

The oldest was maybe 14.

I hid behind a tree, listening to them discuss war and Hitler and dying with honor.

I made my way toward them with the intention to kill.

They saw me and screamed. Some tried to run. Others stood, frozen in horror. As I raised my arm to crush one of their heads, a shadow emerged from the darkness.

The shadow stepped into the light and there stood a being larger than I was, with the face of a corpse.

He gripped my arm in his and said simply, “No.”

I watched the remaining children take the opportunity to run away.

I looked at the being and said, “You have prevented me from my task. You must die.”

What followed was ultimately a disaster.

We kicked and punched and pulled at each other’s limbs. We destroyed everything in our path; the rocks, the trees, the bushes, the animals. And it went on for a long time. Days. Maybe weeks. Neither of us tired or bled or felt any pain.

And then, finally, the being said, “Wait.”

I stopped. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have stopped. He had put himself between me and my purpose and therefore deserved to die. But something about his voice made me pause.

 “This could go on forever,” he said.

 “It could,” I agreed, “But I have no choice.”

I stepped toward him again, but he raised his hand up, “Hear me out. Please.”

The Creature.

I watched as the man made of clay looked me over. I could see him weighing his decision. His stance relaxed, and I knew he had decided to give me a chance.

“I believe we are on the same team,” I said.

“You stopped me from killing those soldiers,” he retorted.

“Children,” I replied.

“Soldiers,” he insisted.

There was something about him that told me he was new to the world. It was the way he moved, as if he was still figuring out how to use his body. And the way he spoke. Short and to the point. Simple statements of fact with no room for nuance.

“What is that on your forehead?” I asked, trying to distract from the argument.

“Truth,” he said simply.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“From over there,” he said, pointing behind him.

And then he smiled, as if he knew I wanted him to say more but was choosing to be vague. And I questioned my recent theory that he was simple minded.

Finally, he asked, “What are you? You are not man.”

“No,” I said, “I’m not man. I’m…an undead man, I guess. I’m called The Creature.”

“The Creature,” he repeated. And then he looked me over again saying, “You are not a Golem.”

“What’s a Golem?” I asked.

“I’m a Golem,” he said, “And a Golem is created to serve.”

He went on to explain the reference to Golem in the Torah. He explained that a rabbi had given him life and what the purpose of that life was.

“My purpose is to kill the soldiers,” he said, “What is your purpose?”

It was a difficult question for me to answer, because ‘my purpose’ had changed so much since my birth as the Creature.

Instead of answering, I told him my story. I told him about Dr. Frankenstein and my journey to the woods where I found a family who I came to love but didn’t love me and my strangling of Elizabeth and my killing of many men along the way. I told him that no amount of killing had taken my pain or anger away. That it only made things worse.

I could tell that he felt pity for me, but after a moment he said, “I do not have any pain. Or remorse. I am not like you.”

I nodded in agreement, “No. But maybe you can only kill when necessary.”

“How do you know what is necessary?” he asked.

We then delved into a long conversation of morality and ethics, with me doing my best to explain and him simply repeating that he was a Golem who was made to serve. And he was not to be swayed. 

“I’ll go with you,” I said, thinking this was the best way to solve the issue.

“You’ll get in my way,” he said.

“I won’t,” I assured him, knowing that I probably would.

And I think he knew it too.

We made our way through the wood, thankfully meeting no one except the animals.

One day, we saw a village through the trees.

I watched as the Golem made his way toward it.

“What will you do?” I asked him.

“If there are soldiers, I will kill them,” he replied.

“Not all soldiers wear uniforms,” I said, “And what if they aren’t soldiers?”

“Then I won’t kill them,” he said, looking at me as if I was an idiot.

“What if they’re Germans?” I asked.

He was silent.

“Germans are not soldiers,” he decided.

He then continued toward the village.

I hesitated.

I hadn’t made myself known to any human since the day Victor died. Once I had found land, I kept to the woods, making sure that no one ever saw me.

I knew what the Nazi soldiers were doing. I had contemplated stepping in myself but was afraid that would do more harm than good. So, I had just stood by and watched as people were taken from their homes, beaten in the streets, shot in broad daylight in front of their families and friends. It was horrific to witness but I was not surprised. Since I opened my eyes as the Creature, I had come to learn that human cruelty knows no bounds.

I often wondered if I had been just as cruel when I was a man.

But those thoughts are futile.

The Golem

We made our way toward the village.

There was a woman hanging her laundry, and once she spotted us, she began to shriek.

I watched as she ran screaming toward her house, trying to warn the others in her town.

We stood among the houses and watched the people from their windows stare at us in horror. There were villagers running every which way, even though we were just standing still.

“Do you see soldiers?” I asked the Creature.

He looked around and I watched the veins in his face move.

He opened his mouth and yelled at the top of his voice, “Are any of you Nazis?”

I turned to the village to see if there would be any response.

Nothing but screaming.

The Creature repeated his question, louder than before, “Are any of you Nazis?!”

I saw to my right a young boy peek his head out from behind a wheel barrow.

I marched toward him and watched him cower in fear.

I could feel the Creature at my back, waiting to see what I would do.

“Are you a soldier?” I asked the boy.

The boy just trembled in response.

Right as I was about to ask again, we heard the sound of footsteps and looked up to see soldiers marching into the village.

I ran toward them, ready to do what I had done before, but the Creature stepped in front of me.

“Wait,” he said.

I raised my hand to push him out of the way, but he turned to the soldiers, asking again, “Are you Nazis?”

I watched them stare at us open mouthed.

And then they started shooting.

For several moments there was nothing but gunshots and the screaming of the surrounding villagers.

Eventually they stopped, and of course, we were still standing.

I saw the swastikas on their arms and turned to the Creature, saying, “They’re Nazis.”

I ran to the soldiers and did what I had done before.

At some point, I noticed the Creature was with me, tearing off heads as well.

The Creature

When all the soldiers had been killed, we made our way back to the woods, the villagers of course gaping at us in silence.

When we got back to the woods, we kept walking.

“Let’s stop,” the Golem said suddenly.

I turned to him surprised but said nothing.

He sat on the ground and so did I.

I watched him look at me, his eyes grazing over my body and face.

“You are a corpse,” he said.

“I am,” he replied.

“How do you live?” he asked.

I explained to him Victor's work and how he had brought me to life.

“You are made from death,” he said, “And I am made from the earth.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

We sat in silence some more.

“What will you do when you have killed them all?” I asked.

“I will probably be erased,” he said.

He explained to me how the word on his head could easily be changed to Death. And once that happened, he would cease to exist.

“They would just kill you?” I asked.

He shrugged saying, “A Golem is meant to serve. Once my purpose is done, they won’t need me.”

“And you have known this since the beginning?” I asked.

He nodded.

And then I asked him a question I had been pondering for a while, “What do you do if your creator is bad?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“What do you do if whoever brings you to life is the one who is in the wrong? What if they were to kill innocents and destroy houses and push people from their land? What do you do?”

The Golem stared at me without saying anything for a long time.

“A Golem is meant to serve,” he finally said, but his voice sounded pained, as if he wasn’t quite convinced.

Silence fell upon us again. I was about to suggest we keep moving when he asked,

“Why did you join me back there?”

“They were Nazis,” I said, “They were probably coming to invade the village…I’ve watched them do it before. Invade. Rape. Pillage. I’ve watched them do it too many times.”

The Golem nodded.

After a moment he got up and we continued.

We killed every Nazi we came across. Except if they were children. He was angry at first, and would try to fight me, but eventually he stopped.

We continued this way for a while. Just making our way across Europe, slaughtering soldiers. Along the way we continued to speak. I would tell him stories of my life, of all that I had done and seen.

He would tell me fables and rhymes and riddles, forgotten myths and legends.

“How do you know all this?” I asked.

He shrugged, “I don’t know. I just do.”

The Golem

We traveled for years. There were many times when we came upon a village and they had already heard of us.

“The monsters!” they would shout.

Sometimes in fear, sometimes in celebration.

In one town, where our arrival was celebrated, the eldest man invited us to dine with him.

I refused, since a Golem does not eat but the Creature looked at me as if I had done something wrong and told the man,

“We would be honored, sir, thank you.”

When I asked him what was the point of dining without being able to eat, he said, “It is a sign of respect. He has offered to let us into his home. It would be rude to refuse him.”

And so, we sat with the old man while he ate, and him and the Creature discussed the war and philosophy and psychology and life’s meaning.

I watched in silence for the most part, amazed at how deeply they both thought about everything.

When we were done and walked back to the woods, the Creature was smiling.

“What?” I asked.

He didn’t respond right away but eventually said, “That was the first time a human has ever made me feel welcome. Has ever made me feel like a…well, like a human.”

“But you’re not human,” I said, “You’re dead.”

The Creature laughed, “I know that, but I used to be human…it’s a complicated feeling, I suppose.”

The Creature would occasionally ask me questions about the future, and what I was going to do, and again the question of how I was supposed to act if whoever created me was to ever do the same thing the Nazis were doing.

I told him that could never happen and he told me,

“You do not know the depth of human cruelty or hypocrisy.”

I hated his questions and intricate responses and ignored them as much as possible.

A Golem is made to serve, but I begin to question every time I had to kill. I was beginning to think and I hated it.

The Creature

The inevitable eventually happened. The war was over. At this point the Golem was different than when I first met him. He asked more questions. Wanted to know more about morality and philosophy. I could see him hesitate before killing soldiers.

We were near the coast when we received word that Germany had lost.

The Golem looked at me and said, “It’s over.”

“What now?” I asked.

Instead of answering he turned from me and made his way to the beach. We had never been to the ocean before and I watched him stare at the waves that seemed to reach into the sky.

“Is this where God lives?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I responded.

He turned toward me and said, “Do you really think that they could do what the Nazis have done?”

I responded with what I had told him earlier, “The depth of human cruelty and hypocrisy knows no bounds.”

He was quiet for a while and then said, “I cannot live in a world with this much thought.”

And he wiped away the aleph from his forehead and I watched as his body disintegrated into dust and flew out to sea.