Jack Sherwood

**Jack Sherwood** (born July 25, 1989), is a former Detective Sergeant with the North Yorkshire Police. After reuniting with his childhood friend Merlyn Murphy, he and Murphy traveled Europe in search of monsters and creatures from mythology.

## Biography

### Early Life

Jack Sherwood was born in England on July 25, 1989 to Lewis Sherwood and Isla Sherwood. As a child, he was friends with Merlyn Murphy, the daughter of two cryptozoologists. Over time, Jack had forgotten about Murphy and didn’t know why. Later, he became a detective with the North Yorkshire Police where he met his friend Elliot O’Donnell. Eventually he would be promoted to Detective Sergeant. While on the police force, he frequented Tom Einstorn's café where he would befriend the barista Cirilla Monarch and the owner Tom Einstorn.

#### The Shredder Case Goes Cold

In late 2019, there was a series of brutal murders attributed to a serial killer known as Shredder. Bodies would be found almost constantly. After a while, the bodies stopped with no explanation. Jack and Elliot thought that the killings had stopped, but were shocked when the next victim was found.

On January 17, 2020, Jack was at Tom Einstorn's café and stayed until close. Jack warned Cirilla that she needed to have someone walk her home, as he was still worried about the Shredder. Tom had another employee, Alfred, close up the shop while he walked her home. Later, Jack got a call about another victim killed by the Shredder. When he and Elliot arrived at the crime scene, they were shocked to find that Cirilla had been killed. Due to Jack's attachment to Cirilla, he and Elliot were taken off the case, and the trail went cold temporarily.

### Murder of Graham Laurens

On the morning of July 5, 2020, Jack received a call from his boss, Detective Inspector Andrew Marino about a body that was found on the beach. When Jack arrived to the crime scene, he was told that Marino had concluded that the victim, Graham Laurens, had committed suicide. Unconvinced, Jack chose to inspect the body himself with the detective-in-training, Samuel Taylor, and found a Siren’s needle tooth in his neck.

#### Reunion with Merlyn Murphy

Upon arrival to the station, Jack received paperwork from Elliot and was told that Marino wanted him to interrogate a suspicious person he found tampering with Laurens’ body. Jack immediately recognized her as his childhood friend, Merlyn Murphy. Off the record, Murphy told Jack that she had found a scale on the body, and knew that Jack had found something too. She handed Jack her business card and Jack was left wondering why he could barely remember anything about Murphy. He returned to the scene of the crime and felt a force pulling him to the water, but resisted.

Jack and Elliot headed to the Sailor’s Pub to blow off some steam after work. There, they discovered that Sam was there with Murphy. When Jack confronted them, he found out that Sam had been drunkenly giving Murphy details about the Laurens investigation that he shouldn’t have been telling her. Murphy left in a hurry, and Jack and Elliot stayed at the pub with Sam.

When Jack got home, he made himself a cup of tea and drifted off to sleep, during which he had a nightmare where he heard a young girl screaming his name, and he was drowning. Jack had had thalassophobia for as long as he could remember, but he could not figure out why these nightmares were just now coming back.

#### Suspension from Work

When Jack showed up to work the next day, Marino pulled him into his office and asked why he had been withholding evidence. Jack lied and said that he didn’t think that what he found was important. Marino eventually forced Jack to hand the needle tooth over to him, and then placed Jack on a week’s suspension.

Outside the station, Jack ran into Murphy. He told her that him getting suspended was her fault and asked why she was in York. She agreed to talk about it and the two of them went to the Sailor’s Pub. Murphy told Jack about her occupation as a cryptozoologist, and Jack didn’t quite believe her. Murphy told him that she believed a Siren was responsible for Laurens’ death, and that he had unconsciously followed the Siren’s call to the water.

Jack once again returned to the scene of the crime, and this time he heard the Siren’s song himself. He made the decision to call Murphy and met her at her flat. The two of them decided to take a boat out to the water and try to communicate with the Siren. But first, Jack wanted to go back to the station and retrieve the needle tooth from evidence.

At the station, Elliot was upset that Jack had abandoned him at work to have to deal with their insufferable coworkers. He begrudgingly agreed to steal the needle tooth out of evidence for Jack and meet him with it at the entrance to the station. When Jack returned to the entrance of the station, he found Sam talking to Murphy and waited out of sight for Sam to leave. When Elliot caught up with the two of them, he explained that the needle tooth was missing. Already along for the ride, Elliot joined Jack and Murphy as they left for the beach.

#### Search for the Siren

Jack, Murphy, and Elliot arrived at the scene of the crime at night. Afraid that Elliot might learn too much, Jack and Murphy told Elliot to keep watch and stay with the car. Jack and Murphy took a small rowboat out to the water and waited for the Siren when they finally heard her song. The Siren attacked Jack who immediately started having flashbacks to when he was drowning in his nightmares. Murphy saved him by singing the next verse to the song the Siren was singing, the Song of Eirene.

Murphy offered to help the Siren back to deeper waters, but before she could help, Sam ambushed them. He revealed that he told Marino that Jack was withholding evidence and that he stole the needle tooth to conduct his own research and also came to the conclusion that this was no ordinary murder. Seeking fame and fortune from bringing a real Siren back with him, he brandished a fishing spear, ready to kill the Siren. Feeling threatened, the Siren attacked him and was impaled by the spear in the process. Sam passed out from shock, and the Siren died in Murphy’s arms.

Jack and Murphy brought the unconscious Sam and dead Siren back to shore. Murphy gave the Siren a water burial and told Jack that Sam wouldn’t remember any of what happened due to her having given him a special elixir. Murphy offered to have Jack join her on her quest to find mythical creatures, and Jack told her he’d think about it. When they returned to the car, they found that Elliot had fallen asleep. Jack and Murphy chose to lie to Elliot, saying that they had discovered a new species of fish but had no evidence because they both dropped their phones in the water.

#### Resignation from the Police Force

After Jack’s suspension ended, he returned to work, but couldn’t get Murphy out of his mind. He wanted to go on an adventure with her, and decided that he was done working at his police job. He went to Marino’s office and told him that he was incompetent at his job, and that he would be quitting the police force.

After resigning, Jack met Murphy at the Sailor’s Pub. He agreed to join her, no matter how dangerous she said the job could be.

### Closing the Shredder Case

A few days after he agreed to go with Murphy, he and Murphy were at Tom Einstorn's café deciding what to do next. Jack asked whether or not they should leave England, and suddenly Jack's phone rang. Phillis Burger had called him, asking to meet him and Peter Bourgot at a restaurant so that they could discuss the Shredder Case. Jack was reluctant but agreed to meet them. Jack and Murphy left the café immediately and got in Jack's car.

At the restaurant, Murphy told Jack that she smelled something foul, but Jack brushed it off shortly before Peter and Phillis approached. When they all sat down, Jack appeared to be agitated by the meeting. After they ordered and got their food (and Jack got the coffee that he ordered), Peter tried to make small talk, but Jack wanted no part of it. He demanded to know why Peter had asked him to come to the restaurant when he'd told him that he was done with the Shredder Case. Jack was surprised when Peter claimed that he knew who the culprit was: Tom Einstorn. At first, Jack was hesitant to believe Peter, but Phillis showed him previously unseen CCTV footage that appeared to show Tom being aggressive toward Cirilla. Jack ended up agreeing to help Peter, although it took a little convincing on Peter's part. When the bill came, Jack offered to pay the bill even though he had only had coffee, and Peter winced in pain as his wrist made contact with Jack's money clip. Jack believed Peter's explanation that it was carpal tunnel from writing reports at his law office, and he and Murphy left the restaurant.

Jack and Murphy headed back to Jack's flat, where Jack immediately started rummaging through boxes in his bedroom looking for the Shredder Case file. Once he found it, he returned to the living room where Murphy told Jack about her suspicions about Peter, that she didn't like the way he ate his near-raw steak, that she didn't like his smell, until finally she blurted out that she thought Peter might be a werewolf. She and Jack got into an argument about this until Jack angrily left the room, saying he needed to read over the file. His next problem, he realized, was getting into the evidence room at the station since he'd quit his job.

#### Making Sense of the Evidence

At the station, Jack tried to get into the station by just asking, but the receptionist Janet refused to allow him to enter. Elliot approached the front of the station, berating Jack for abandoning him. After he grilled Jack a bit more, he blackmailed Janet with her infidelity to allow Jack into the station. They went into the evidence room and Elliot found the evidence for the Shredder case rather quickly. Jack started to experience a flashback with a young girl screaming his name, but snapped out of it when Elliot asked if he was going to look inside the box of evidence materials. When Jack began to sift through the materials, Murphy asked about Cirilla's cross necklace that had come off during the attack and the hair found at the crime scene, which Jack explained to her didn't come up on any DNA search and was a dead end. When Jack picked up a journal from the evidence bin, he became suspicious and claimed that it had more pages in it originally. Jack stated that he wasn't simply going to hand over the evidence to Peter and that he wanted to clear some things up with him first. Jack and Murphy headed to Peter's office.

At Peter's office, they were escorted in by Phillis and were told to take a seat while they waited for Peter. Jack began to ask Peter questions about the investigation, such as why it took so long to obtain the CCTV footage and about the missing journal pages. Shortly after Peter arrived, Murphy stood up and began to look around the collection of old books on Peter's bookshelf, and also began sniffing much to Jack's annoyance. Phillis suddenly entered the room, prompting Peter to momentarily step out. During this time, Jack noticed Peter's hair gel sitting in his briefcase and decided to try it out, noting how disgusting it felt. Then, he noticed a stack of papers in Peter's briefcase that looked like they may have been ripped out of the journal in the evidence room. Jack stuffed them into his own briefcase moments before Peter reentered the room, announcing that something else had come up, and that they would have to reschedule this meeting. Noticing that Jack had rifled through his briefcase, Peter became very suspicious of Jack's motives, but seemed to be especially caught off guard by the fact that Jack had used his hair gel. With that, Jack and Murphy hurried back to Jack's car.

#### The Shredder is Identified

Back at Jack's apartment, Murphy and Jack exchanged what information they had ascertained at Peter's office. Jack had discovered that Peter had the missing journal pages, and Murphy had found an old article from the 16th century apparently implicating Peter in the werewolf trials, a series of events that nobody outside of Parliament should have had any knowledge of. Although Jack still did not believe Murphy's claim that Peter was a werewolf, he conceded that something strange was going on. He called Elliot, instructing him to bring the evidence from the Shredder case to the York train station where they would meet him.

At the train station, Elliot gave Jack a hard time once more about quitting his job, but became much more serious and covert when he realized that the three of them were being watched, most likely by Phillis. Elliot suggested that they should go back to Murphy's apartment, since Peter and Phillis would probably assume they'd go back to Jack's, plus the advantage that they likely wouldn't know where Murphy lived. Jack made the decision to take the train there. After boarding the train and losing Phillis, Elliot demanded to know what was going on, but Jack refused to talk about it in such a public setting.

When they finally got to Murphy's apartment, Jack was able to compare the pages from Peter's briefcase to the journal and found a match, with the journal indicating that Peter had written about enjoying the murder of Cirilla Monarch. Jack insisted that Peter had to pay for his crimes, but Murphy stood firm that she doesn't kill monsters. Eventually, they were forced to tell Elliot that Peter was a werewolf, Jack finally believing it himself. Murphy opened a secret armory in a false china cabinet she had and retrieved a pair of silver knuckles for fighting Peter. She gave Jack her grandmother's silver plate to use and gave Elliot a walking stick. Jack called to set up another meeting with Peter and Phillis, this time at the scene of the crime, and the three of them left Murphy's apartment to meet them there.

#### Encounter With a Werewolf

At the scene of the crime, Peter noted that it was a strange meeting spot. Jack and Murphy accused Peter of both being a werewolf and of being behind all the murders in the Shredder case, including Cirilla's. At first, Peter denied the accusations, but changed his tune once Murphy brought up the werewolf trials and Parliament. After more discussion about Peter's past and his werewolf abilities, Peter began to apply his hair gel, triggering his transformation into a werewolf. Jack and Murphy fought against Peter while Elliot took care of Phillis. At first, Peter was too fast and too strong for them, but the tide turned once Jack used his silver plate against Peter, giving Murphy an opening to use her silver knuckles on him. After a ferocious fight, Peter had turned back into a human. He admitted defeat, much to the annoyance of Phillis who felt betrayed by him. Peter agreed to confess his crimes to the police (albeit leaving out the werewolf parts of the story they weren't likely to believe), and Jack, Murphy, Elliot, and Peter left the crime scene, leaving Phillis behind.

Jack and Murphy brought Peter to a werewolf village Murphy knew of, telling him that he could act on his urges here without risking the lives of innocent people. Peter refused to tell all of his secrets, leaving them to wonder who had turned Peter into a werewolf. Jack refused to forgive Peter for killing Cirilla, but conceded that he had to understand monsters if he was to be able to help Murphy. On the way home from the village, Jack made a stop to visit Cirilla's gave one final time and apologize for what happened in some final act of closure. When they arrived back at Murphy's apartment, they were shocked to find the door already open, with Elliot inside opening a bottle of champagne. He told Jack and Murphy that he wanted to join them on their quest, which they accepted.

## Personality and traits

> "There are very little things that scare me nowadays. I think it might have something to do with my line of work. Maybe I'm numb to a lot of things. But... I've always been terrified of the water."
>
> -**Jack Sherwood**

According to the Scrivener, on the surface, Jack appears to be a simple person to understand. However, his initial complacency as to the mystery of his own past contradicts his fondness for solving the unknown.

Jack has intense thalassophobia, a fear of large bodies of water. He had this ever since he was a child, and it causes him to have nightmares about drowning. Jack was surprised to figure out that this fear of water superseded any other fear he might have had, such as a fear of heights. During the flight to Romania, Jack remarked that he was trapped in a metal box barreling into a lightning storm and he was fine, but he couldn't even look at a large body of water without fighting off a panic attack.

## Skills and Abilities

Jack is known to have great power of deduction, which is why he was able to become the youngest detective in York at the age of 25. His grounded, analytical brain complements Murphy's immense knowledge of monsters and folklore.

## Behind the Scenes

The voice of Jack Sherwood is portrayed by Dan Vasquez.

## Appearances

* *Pilot* (First Appearance)
* *Ground Coffee*
* *There Existed An Addiction To Blood*
* *In The Woods Somewhere*
* *There Was Music In Her Eyes*
* *Below The Murky Depths*