House of Jack

House of Jack is the sixth story in The Yellow Butterflies and deals with the aftermath of The Hunting of Sharp Jack. It details a night in which Michael Shelterfield, a boy who avoided death in The Hunting of Sharp Jack by wussing out, muses on the loss of his brother and attempts to take revenge.
A PDF of the story's current draft can be found here.
The following sections contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
== Plot Synopsis ==
Michael Shelterfield, the younger brother of one of the boys killed in The Hunting of Sharp Jack, contemplates the unfairness of Dan's brother living but not his own. Although his family has become quite wealthy, he is deeply unsatisfied and has suffered from psychological problems as a result of the incident. In front of the fireplace, he utters the verses that summon Sharp Jack, and is surprised to see Sharp Jack in the room when he opens his eyes.
Sharp Jack and Michael banter briefly about the nature of the game and the nature of Sharp Jack himself, before Michael agrees to the game and vows to kill Jack. With his head-start, Michael heads to the kitchen to arm himself, but Jack appears in the window and begins to crawl through. Michael decides that it'll take more than a knife to kill Jack, and runs upstairs to his parents' bedroom for their shotgun. The clatter wakes up his parents, and his father emerges to investigate.
Michael's father and Sharp Jack fight while Michael grabs for the gun. Defending his wounded father, Michael attacks Jack with the gun, and succeeds in blowing off one of his legs in a cloud of yellow butterflies. After talking briefly, Jack and Michael wrestle for the gun, and the struggle causes Michael to accidentally blow his own head off, much to Jack's horror, as this was not his intention. Jack escapes through the window. A mention in Manning's Meats adds that Michael's death was deemed a suicide.
== Characters ==
* Sharp Jack - The main antagonist. More of him is revealed in this story. Directly associated with the titular yellow butterflies.
* Michael Shelterfield - A boy whose brother died to Sharp Jack in an earlier story. Fixated on revenge.
* The Shelterfield parents - Loving parents with varying luck.
== Trivia ==
* Michael Shelterfield's surname was originally Kolter.
Category:Written Pieces
Category:Rhiannon H works
Category:Stories in The Yellow Butterflies