I Am Number Four

Henri tells Four that he read in the news that the men they met who wrote and published They Walk Among Us were tortured and killed, clearly by the Mogadorians. Henri asks him more about the fire, trying to catch him in a lie. Four says he didn’t go in, and Henri says he believes him, but they are both clearly uneasy.

Sarah comes over the next night and asks him questions about his past, Lorien, and the Mogadorians, and he tells her everything. As he starts to talk about the Mogadorians, he grows more anxious that his actions during the fire will expose them. He is scared that Henri will find out. Even though Henri isn’t biologically Four’s father, he still thinks of him as one, and he doesn’t want to disappoint him.

Four again isn’t able to sleep, so he and Bernie Kosar walk to school together before sunrise. He is there when the newspaper gets delivered, and he is overwhelmed with relief when the article about the fire doesn’t mention his name or anything about him. Still, he can’t help but feel like he is overlooking something.

The rest of the school day passes without issues until Four is called to Mr. Harris’s office at the end of the day. Four has a bad feeling. When he gets to the office, Mr. Harris says an envelope addressed to Four was faxed to him a half hour ago. Four opens it, and inside the envelope is a sheet of paper that says in all capitals with no name: “ARE YOU NUMBER 4.” Mr. Harris asks Four if it’s true that he ran into the burning house to save Sarah and the dogs. He shows him his computer, where he is reading a blog affiliated with the Paradise Gazette. The story is called “The James House Fire: The Untold Story.”

Four is filled with panic and dread. He looks out the window of Mr. Harris’s office and sees Henri’s truck fly into the parking lot.

Four, exhausted after not sleeping and devastated by the realization that he won’t get to say goodbye to Sarah, acts without thinking and jumps over Mr. Harris’s desk and crashes through the plate-glass window. He sprints across the school yard and beats Henri to the house, where to his surprise, he finds Mark James. Mark says he came to show Henri a YouTube video that was sent to him anonymously. As Four watches the video, it is clear, even with the video’s poor quality, that Four is jumping out the window holding Sarah and the dogs.

Next to Mark is a sheet of paper that arrived for Henri at the same time Mark did. The paper reads: “Yes, it’s me, Number Four. I am here waiting for you. We’ve been running for ten years, but please, come kill us now; we won’t put up a fight” (342). At the bottom of the paper, there is a phone number.

Henri pulls into the driveway and bursts into the house with Bernie Kosar. Henri is furious at Four for lying to him and tells Four they are leaving immediately. Four says that they can’t leave yet because Sarah is not safe; her face is just as clear as his is in the video. Henri looks at him with such hurt and desperation that Four feels bad and looks away. He says that he is sorry and jumps out the window and into the woods.

The parking lot of the school is almost empty. It is 3:30, but it is darker than normal, “a darkness steeped in density, a darkness that is heavy, consuming” (345). He finds Sarah hiding in the photography darkroom. They leave the room and are moving down the hallway as quietly as possible when they hear the Mogadorians arrive. As they are desperately trying to escape the school, they are stopped by a girl who is around Four’s age and even stronger than he is. She introduces herself as Number Six.

Six tells Four that she has been looking for him ever since Number Three was killed. She tells Four that her Cêpan died three years ago. She has been on her own ever since.

She was able to get past the Mogadorians in the school by turning invisible, one of her Legacies. By holding her hands, they will turn invisible as well. Four and Sarah each take hold of one of her hands and they try to escape down the hallway. They run into the Mogadorian scouts and are forced to fight. Four accidentally looks into one of their eyes and feels paralyzed with despair, darkness, and death. Six breaks the spell by throwing the scout against the wall. His body collapses and bursts into ashes.

Henri and Bernie Kosar arrive. Henri is carrying a double-barreled shotgun, and Mark is behind him carrying the Loric Chest. Four and Henri hug each other tightly, and Four tells him that he is so sorry for not listening to him. They gather in the home economics room, where Sarah and Mark gather knives and Henri tends to Six, who has taken a dagger in the arm. Henri heals the wound by rubbing a dark flat rock that he took out of the Loric Chest against the gash. To Four’s surprise, the stone heals the wound completely, but Six looks like she is in incredible pain. Henri explains that the pain of healing is double that of the original pain, and it only works when the injury was inflicted with intent to harm. The stone also has to be used immediately to be effective.

All of the scouts are waiting for them outside the room, and they know they are surrounded. Four realizes that since Six is there, the protective charm is broken and the Mogadorians can kill without any barriers. Six says that she is tired of running and doing nothing. The time has come to fight back. Four agrees.

Six says that they can’t waste any more time because the beasts and soldiers will be arriving soon to join the scouts. They are like the scouts, but bigger and more deadly. Six notices Bernie Kosar, who won’t stop growling and whining at the door. To Four’s confusion, Six smiles and asks Four if he knows. Four looks at Bernie Kosar, confused, and says he doesn’t know what she is talking about.

Their only choice is to go outside and try to outrun the scouts. They make their way down the dark hallway, and Four makes the mistake of turning on his lights to guide the way. The minute he does, he gets attacked by a scout. Henri shoots the scout’s head off, and his body turns to a pile of ash.

They rush to the gym and escape down the hatch and into the tunnels that lead close to the football field. To their horror, it ends up being a trap. Outside the tunnel are no fewer than 20 scouts waiting for them. Four screams at Sarah and Mark to get back into the tunnel while he and Henri fight them off. Six, using another of her Legacies, begins to create a storm in the sky. Bernie Kosar runs off into the woods to chase a scout.

Mark drags Sarah away toward the tunnel and promises Four he will get her to safety. Four and Henri continue to fight, and Henri gets stabbed in the gut by a scout. The rest of the scouts arrive, along with the beasts and soldiers. They know they are outnumbered, but Four and Henri vow to fight until the end. First they run back through the tunnel and use the healing stone on Henri’s gut wound and the gash on Four’s head.

Outside, they hear a loud, beastly roar. Four looks at Henri and repeats what Henri told him earlier in the novel: “There’s always hope, Henri” (383). Henri smiles and responds back, “When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope” (383).