The Hunting of Sharp Jack

:“Sharp Jack, I want to play your game,Play the hunting game with me, Sharp Jack.”
The Hunting of Sharp Jack is a short story in The Yellow Butterflies. The opening story of Act One, it introduces Sharp Jack, and is told from the perspective of a young boy named Dan.
A PDF of the story's current draft can be found here.
The following sections contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
== Plot Overview ==
A group of young boys plan to summon an urban legend named Sharp Jack. Sharp Jack is the topic of much schoolyard whisperings, and the leader of the group, a sixth former named Frank, leads the younger children into the woods to summon him. The youngest, Michael, backs out early, but the remaining boys venture to a clearing where they start a fire and summon Sharp Jack using the phrase 'Sharp Jack, I want to play your game. Play your hunting game with me, Sharp Jack'. 
Although at first they do not realise, they soon notice that Sharp Jack has inexplicably joined their party. After briefly explaining the rules - if he catches them, he eats them, but if they catch him, they get a wish - and confirming that they want to play, the game begins, and the boys get a head-start to hide.
Sharp Jack, however, being a skilled predator, picks off the boys one by one, murdering them until only Frank, Dan (the narrator) and Dan's brother remain. However, one boy manages to stab Sharp Jack's thigh, proving that he can be wounded. Frank commits suicide out of terror, and the other boys watch as Jack enters the shed where they are hiding, taking Frank's body and placing flowers on it, seemingly in grief.
Dan, in desperation, sacrifices his brother to distract Sharp Jack, before beating the monster into submission with a shovel and strangling him. Sharp Jack relents, granting Dan his wish. In the story's epilogue, Dan muses that he should've used his wish to make people believe his story, that Sharp Jack was real, but reveals that he instead wished for his brother to be alive, and that said brother still refuses to talk to him after the betrayal.
== Characters ==
* Dan - The protagonist and narrator.
* Thomas - Dan's brother. Is killed by Sharp Jack after being betrayed by his brother and attempting to escape by scaling a fence. Is revived by Dan's wish, but is so betrayed that he refuses to speak to him.
* James - A friend of Dan's. Is killed by Sharp Jack.
* Michael - James's younger brother. Leaves the group before the venture into the forest. Is the protagonist of House of Jack.
* Jesse - Another boy, the best friend of Samuel. Killed by Sharp Jack after a scuffle.
* Samuel - Jesse's best friend. Injured by a fall and killed by Sharp Jack.
* Frank - An older boy in the sixth form of school. Commits suicide to avoid being eaten by Sharp Jack, much to Sharp Jack's horror. The grandson of Jessica Church from Fence Dog.
* Sharp Jack - The story's antagonist. Painted as an urban legend constantly whispered about in schools. Very mysterious.
== Trivia ==
* The story's title was originally the title of the collection, before the 'yellow butterflies' concept was made a running theme.
Category:Written Pieces
Category:Rhiannon H works
Category:Stories in The Yellow Butterflies