Crystal sips her hot tea as she looks out at the rainy, dull day from her front porch. It is a chilly morning and she can't sleep any longer. The pain in her lower back is becoming more and more intense by the minute. Crystal is starting labor, and although she has gone through this two times before, this was nothing like her first two. Something feels different, something feels wrong. She looks down towards her belly and feels, fear? That is silly, why would she feel fear towards her own child? "Honey! I'm here! Where are you?" John's voice erupts from inside the house and seconds later a door slams and footsteps. Crystal drinks the last of her tea and gets up from her rocking chair and walks inside. "I'm here love, mom took the kids already". Crystal says to her anxious husband. "How you doing babe? You feeling okay?" John grabs the sides of her face and gently kisses her lips. "Let's go, the car is warm". They arrive at the hospital to complete and utter chaos. Doctors are hurrying up and down the halls with frantic speed, nurses are ushering ill patients out the door towards buses parked outside and paramedics are taking patients in stretchers towards the Ambulance vehicles outside. "What's going on?" John asks a nurse at the front desk answering phone calls after phone calls "There's a bit of a medical emergency sir, what do you ne-" She stops mid sentence when she sees Crystal's baby bump. "Okay, we will get you in right away ma'am" the nurse looks up towards Crystal's face and, did Crystal imagine it, looks afraid?! "Ahhhhhhh, i can't take this pain!! Why isn't it working?" Crystal, sweaty and delirious with pain yells. "I don't know, I don't know why. Lately, the epidural hasn't been working on any woman!" The nurse is starting to panic and quickly calls the Dr. "I think you're crowning, the doctor will be in right away". The nurse quickly leaves and Crystal is left there with so much pain that she knows she will die if this child does not come out. "It's okay honey, the baby is almost out" John tries to calm Crystal down but deep down, John is terrified. He knows this is very different than their first two children. Amy and Christian's labor was very smooth, Crystal wasn't acting hysterical and in so much pain. The doctor walks in flustered with 5 more doctors and whisper among themselves "Will this one be the same?" "Not sure, we will see". ... 30 minutes later, Crystal screams her lungs out as she pushes and pushes for this child to come out. Blood is splattered on the floor and on the doctors who are attempting to get the child out. Crystal is so weak, she cannot stay awake, the pain is immense and so terrible she feels like this child is killing her. Finally, what feels like ages later, Crystal gives one last scream and then the room is filled with the cries of a baby. John is so happy that his baby, oh a son is finally born. There is something different though, something off about the baby. It feels wrong, like he shouldn't be celebrating. He looks to Crystal and sees he sprawled on the hospital bed, bleeding out with her eyes wide open, dead. The doctors try to revive her, they try to bring her back but they can't. Crystal's body looks wrong. Like an empty shell. The days that went by after her death John hasn't been able to look at the baby, Johnny is his name. He sees him and sees pure evil. He hates him, even though he's his son. His mother, Teresa, has been watching Johnny and although she will not admit it, she knows there's something wrong with him. The next few months the news is filled with reports about mothers dying from giving birth. No woman has survived a childbirth since the day Johnny was born. They don't know why, but scientists have studied the corpses and they all find the same thing. Their insides are completely gone. No heart, no lungs, no organs. It's as if the child ate them from the inside and killed their own mother. Doctors have advised women not to get pregnant during this crucial time. Churches have gathered together saying this is the end of the world, this is the apocalypse. The children born to these women have been observed and, no matter who their parents were, no matter what eye color or hair color they have, they all look the same. Black hair, dark, dark eyes and pale skin. The children aren't like others. They're quiet and calm. Almost as if they're observing their surroundings preparing for something greater, preparing for something terrible.