The Fourth Stage

Three bizarre murders have plagued the town's South, West, and North districts. The police are baffled by the killer's seemingly pointless motive: every single victim was already hours away from death, even if the murderer hadn't intervened. Why risk a high-profile murder charge on people who had no time left anyway? Alone in her house in the East district, a woman watches the news and suddenly pieces together the killer's gruesome pattern. As a sharp, agonizing contraction suddenly rips through her swollen belly, all the blood drains from her face. She knows who is coming next, and why it's already too late.