: In gaming (notably Bloodborne ), "Quickening" refers to a special hunter's art that allows for high-speed side-stepping or disappearing temporarily during combat.
“It’s not a metaphor anymore,” Maya whispered to her best friend, Jules, who was six months pregnant—with twins, though no one knew the father wasn’t human. Jules had been acting strange ever since she’d helped the drama club move that old statue from the basement. The statue of a faceless, pregnant woman with too many ribs.
In medical terms, "the quickening" is the moment a mother first feels the fetus move. In this spooky context, it serves as a narrative turning point where the horror moves from an external mystery to an internal, unstoppable force. It represents the loss of bodily autonomy, a common trope in body horror.