“Son of The Centipede” Lore, Revised.
This AU contains a lot of disturbing material, if you are easily grossed out by body horror and other shit people may find disturbing. Do not read this shit, thanks.
In this Alternate Universe….
Josef had a head start on creating the centipede plenty of years earlier than the normal timeline, back when he was still working at the hospital, this just happened to be a dark side hobby of his on the down low.
And, Josef was able to prolong the life of his creation, his precious Human Centipede, he was also able to preserve Jenny and treat her sepsis properly. However, Josef was aware of the inevitable fact that Human beings couldn’t live in the conditions he subjected his three victims Katsuro, Lindsay, and Jenny to.
There were several outcomes of his Centipede that Josef replayed in his head daily, Asphyxiation/Aspiration in one of the segments, Wound Failures and Hemorrhages, or Severe Dehydration and Malnutrition.
Plenty of things in which would make survival of the centipede, nearly impossible.
This distressed Josef, how could he have not thought of this before hand? How did he not examine all options before going through with this extremely complex surgery? How could he have let his extremely inflated ego allow himself to think that the impossible was possible?
Many Questions whirled through his mind, with little answers, no solutions that made sense to him.
So in a desperate last ditch effort to preserve his beloved Centipede.
The demented Doctor had a Plan, one that sounded insane even to him.
His Centipede and Him would become one, but not through surgery, not through any other biological experimentation or manipulation.
Josef wanted to create an entire other life form from his Centipede, a completely different life form, another human being. By impregnating Jenny, The Last Segment.
He would raise this child as his own, This Child would be the one human being he didn't hate, and would become the ultimate henchman in Josef’s future experiments because Josef had a plan to teach them everything he knows.
The plan was insane, deranged, and on a whole other level of irrational.
But this was Josef Heiter, a man who created a human centipede out of hatred for humans, who had a sick mind and nothing better to do once he clocked out from work.
Nothing, was completely irrational to this man.
So it was done, Josef went through with an artificial insemination into Jenny with his own DNA. At First, The Centipede as a whole (especially Katsuro) didn’t take it very well that he would be a part of yet another weird experiment of Josef’s, but he had empathy for his fellow Centipede segments behind him, so he didn’t put too much of a fuss up with Josef so he didn't further stress them out. Because in a situation like this, this was the last thing they would need.
And for once? Josef actually treated his Centipede with a little more care than usual, not because he cared or showed empathy towards them, The Centipede was carrying something valuable, his future henchman, he gave the Centipede Regular Showers, A Proper Sleeping Place, Regular (almost daily) check ups, and Massages (which he did reluctantly.)
The Centipede would face a rather unique challenge throughout carrying the child.
Morning Sickness would travel from segment to segment and Josef had to monitor each episode so aspiration and choking didn't happen. Swelling in the legs were very common in the later months of pregnancy and the centipede would be less mobile, and spent a lot of time sleeping in it’s sleeping quarters, where Josef would observe from afar most nights, making sure nothing went wrong.
It was finally the eighth month of pregnancy for The Centipede, and tragedy struck.
Jenny was beginning to show signs of sepsis around her stitching again, and it seemed that the sepsis hadn’t stopped there, but it was beginning to spread throughout the entire digestive tract of the centipede.
This spelled trouble, serious trouble for everybody involved.
Josef knew what he had to do now, an emergency C-Section was well in order, and the centipede would soon be put out of its misery shortly afterwards.
The C-Section took a little longer than the typical procedure did, roughly an hour and thirty minutes later, Malcolm Heiter would make his way into the world. An entire month earlier than he was supposed to.
But Nonetheless.
Malcolm came into the world a relatively healthy child, a normal birth weight and all.
And He was completely unaffected by the spread of the sepsis.
For a moment afterwards, Josef felt the closest thing to pride that he had ever felt throughout his years of being a surgeon. This wasn’t just “the closing of the last few stitches of an extensive surgery” well done.
He had successfully brought his own child into the world, One that came from only him and his beloved centipede.
In his mind, he was something like another Victor Frankenstein in a way.
Shortly after Malcolm’s birth, the sickly Human Centipede was finally put to death as peacefully as one can be put to death, through IV sedation.
From Here on, it was just Josef and Malcolm, and Josef learning to navigate the ropes of parenthood, and learning tolerance for mistakes made, messes, tantrums, sickness. It was exhausting for him, he learned to show his aggravation in private, or go for a nightly swim to drown his aggressions whenever Malcolm was all tucked away for the night.
Malcolm’s childhood was filled full of mostly happy days due to Josef improving his attitude, and realizing that the world wasn’t all about Surgery, Isolation, and his laboratory below them.
Now his life consisted of Cartoons softly playing on his television, A few toys scattered across his once spotless floor, scribbled drawings done by his son hanging from his fridge, and investments in hair care products for his son’s curly hair.
Josef had turned the backyard of his Villa into a sanctuary for his son, he had planted Spicebushes, Lilacs and Summersweets, The once Demented Doctor turned Doting Father, Hung Hummingbird feeders from his back porch so his son could admire them.
Malcolm had taken a big interest in nature, and Josef wanted nothing more than to fuel his childlike curiosity about the creatures residing around him.
Thus, Malcolm’s love for butterflies was born.
But not all days were spent in the sun, some were spent inside where Josef would find himself awake at odd hours of the night, resisting the urge to kidnap and torture more unsuspecting people, fighting the urge to experiment on anything he could get his hands on.
He swore to himself all of those years ago when Malcolm was born, he would wait until Malcolm could grasp the situation better. That at the very least, he would restrain himself for.
During Malcolm’s later Teen Years, Josef’s demeanor would soon change.
Josef couldn’t keep up the act any longer. He had taken Malcolm out of public schooling and instead provided him his education. The basics of course, but Mathmatics, Human Biology and Sciences were heavily focused on.
Malcolm had no idea what he was being prepared for, but he always had a feeling in the back of his mind that whatever it was it couldn’t be good. Malcolm’s demeanor would change along with Josef’s, going from a Happy Extroverted Child, to A Introverted, Anxious, Teenager who still admired nature, but did so from his bedroom window rather than shaking the bushes to stir up the butterflies that lived within, running around until dusk catching them in his hands and releasing them into the night sky.
He knew something was wrong with his father, he could sense it in the way he behaved. His father went from constantly checking on him, to sometimes going entire days without speaking to him unless it was school related, cooking him dinner almost every night to silently leaving left overs in the fridge for Malcolm to reheat, and often locking himself down in his basement.
Exhibiting the same behaviors he did before Malcolm was born.
It seems the joy and happiness of his childhood years were behind him.
Soon, Malcolm would reach adulthood.
It was the morning of his 18th Birthday.
There was no huge celebration, no party, no streamers, no birthday cake to surprise him on the kitchen table.
No birthday cards with sweet words written within.
Malcolm was greeted with his father sitting at the head of dining room table, his gaze upon him colder than ice. His hands folded in front of him. A sheet of paper laying in front of him, a diagram of sorts written on the paper..
A new and improved Diagram of a six person Human Centipede.
Heiter instructed Malcolm to sit at the seat across from him, there were important things he needed to discuss.
So, Josef went into detail about how this Human Centipede would work, the ins and outs, the complex way of sustaining life he had been conjuring.
His plan.. Essentially to create a Six Person, Revolving Units Centipede.
Six Segments, Once one gets sickly, it was to be killed and replaced, the surviving segments to continue to suffer until their ultimate demise, whatever that may look like.
Josef would also reveal That Malcolm was born from his first creation, his three person Human Centipede. The lie that Josef had told his son many years ago about having a mother who fell ill whenever he was still in infancy was all a lie.
Malcolm was born from an experiment, in a cold basement lab, not surrounded by two loving parents in a hospital like a lot of children were.
Malcolm had a purpose way before he was born, and it was to serve his father in his ultimate experiment.
That nearly broke Malcolm. Tears pricked his eyes before his father could even finish explaining it to him, his father’s voice fading in and out as he realized..
He wasn’t brought here in love, he has had a purpose all along.
And it wasn’t to be loved, it was to serve.
Begrudgingly, Malcolm would be his father’s accomplice.
It’s not like he had anywhere else to be, he had no one who could save him from this life.
He was stuck, and the last thing he wanted to do was upset the one man in his life who somewhat cared about him.
Malcolm and Josef would venture across Germany, collecting people who appeared to be drifters from other cities, homeless individuals, and people who simply seemed like they wouldn’t be missed by anybody.
And they would be taken back to Josef’s home, into the cold basement lab
Where six people would be strapped down to a bed, some shivering and staring straight ahead at the men who had been their kidnappers, some thrashing and crying out for help to arrive, some still asleep from the dart Josef had shot into them.
All the while, Malcolm found himself standing by his father in silence as he would go on to explain to the poor unfortunate souls strapped to their beds how their fate would play out.
The cutting of the ligaments in the knees, the extracting of the teeth, the connecting of the bowls, sewing of the cheeks. Everything.
And by the end, each individual was speechless.
Some continued to fight back, others accepted their fate.
But none of them escaped the wrath of Josef, and Malcolm.
Soon began the grueling thirty hour surgery, all of Malcolm’s purpose, all of Malcolm’s schooling and training. It was all for this very moment right here.
The pressure was overwhelming to him, at some points during the surgery Malcolm found himself silently sobbing behind his glasses, staining his cheeks with tears. But soon he composed himself, not to contaminate the steril surgical field with his warm, salty tears that contained every worry, every negative thought in his mind.
Josef, couldn’t be bothered to even look up from what he was doing, his focus was stronger than anything, and nothing was sure to break it.
A Man playing God. And a Flesh God he was.
After the 30 hours of Flesh and Organ Manipulation concluded, Josef was exhausted, but he prided himself in what he had just completed.
Meanwhile Malcolm was experiencing the worst migraine of his life, the worst hunger spell he had ever felt in his life, and nature was beginning to call him to the porcelain thrown because he had ignored the urge to expel for way too long.
Weeks went on, and all that was heard was groaning and crying from the six segments echoing from the basement.
Josef managed to keep the TV’s volume above fifty at all times to drown out the noise.
However, Malcolm’s room was directly below the basement, near the stairwell.
The cries kept him awake at night, the sobs of the first segment begging to be released and all of the ones behind them screaming and sobbing as well.
It did more than haunted him, it drove him to insanity that night, and every night going forward.
The Morning came, and Malcolm and Josef were doing their usual breakfast routines.
Josef preparing fruit salad, Malcolm fixing buttered toast.
Josef would discuss with Malcolm that he needed to venture to Southern Germany to purchase supplies for The Centipede, IV fluids and medicine to sustain them and ensure their physical wellbeing, informing him that he would have the responsibility of overseeing and looking after the horrid creation, and Josef would be gone for a few days in order to gather it all from different hospitals that were closing and selling their stock.
Malcolm, having no other choice Obliged to keeping an eye on it.
As Josef prepared for his trek across Germany.
An idea sparked into Malcolm’s head.
He knew how to assemble a Centipede…
He could most certainly Disassemble one….
Malcolm mapped out a plan, and he had to be quick and efficient with it.
So after Josef left, Malcolm got all of the rest he possibly could, dressed in his surgical attire, and made a B line for the basement to begin..
The Disassembling of The Centipede.
He was sure to inform the six individuals what would be happening and how it would be done, explaining how he would try his hardest to restore and repair all of the damage he could and send them on their way.
After he was done explaining, he was sure to carefully put each segment asleep with anesthesia, and get to work on Disassembling the abomination that him and his father had just created not even weeks prior. His heart racing throughout the procedure, his mind wondering to worst case scenarios.
But it didn’t matter, None of it mattered. Just like how little Malcolm mattered to Josef now.
This was Josef’s payback for everything, bringing him here, depriving him of love, depriving him of a normal life, everything..
Malcolm would successfully disassemble the Centipede in the matter of twelve hours, restorations, tooth implants placed, legs corrected, skin grafted back to where it belonged.
He was beyond exhausted, scared and anxious.
But he knew this was the right thing to do, to put these people out of their misery and let them leave this horrible place.
As soon as the last person ran from the villa, escaping but turning to wave a final goodbye to the man who had just saved them all from a life of hell.
Malcolm had a realization. He would soon have to deal with the wrath of his father.
What would he even do?
What would be the consequence for such a rebellion?
Malcolm would sit for another day in his home, nothing.. no police knocking at his door, no return of Josef.
Just the uncomfortable silence and the ringing in his ears only getting louder.
Until, the jingle of familiar sounding keys the next day filled his ears, the first sound he had heard other than his thoughts and the tinnitus ringing.
He shot up out of a dead sleep, he had passed out cold on the couch but he knew that his fate was soon to arrive.
What was his punishment?
Soon, Josef would return with supplies for a Centipede that was no longer here, once he reached the basement with all of the boxes. He noticed immediately that something was off, the lights were off when usually they would be kept on for Purpose of Visibility of The Centipede, The Air smelled sterile, even for the basement.. almost as if a surgery had just been preformed.
Josef searched high and low for the centipede, and began gritting his teeth when he realized what had happened, he marched up the steps to his son and immediately pointed an accusitory finger and began scolding him and calling him hurtful things. To which Malcolm remained still, dissociated, mentally elsewhere.
Finally, Josef snatched Malcolm by the arm, repeating aloud that he would “Now experience experimentation as a punishment for what you have done.”
To which Malcolm attempted to fight back, but it was no use.
Josef had been sneaky, and suddenly Malcolm felt a dart pierce deep into his neck tissue.
And he was out like a light.
When Malcolm would awaken from his abrupt nap, he would find himself in the very room where Josef had kept his victims. The air was cold and sterile as always.
However..
It was hard for him to breathe, his skin felt stretched in all of the wrong ways, and felt as if he had……
Extra Limbs Attatched.
To Malcolm’s horror, his father had sewn two sets of fully functional, yet painfully so, arms to his body.
And he had sewn his mouth completely shut.
Out of pure shock and fury, Malcolm began to rip at his stitches around his mouth and cheeks, clawing at them until they slowly began to unravel. Blood stained the blankets and the sheets around him, but he didn’t care. He needed the stitches out of his mouth and that was that.
After several minutes of clawing them off of his face and ripping skin. He let out an angry cry of agony before attempting to steady himself onto his feet, completely thrown off balance by the new appendages.
He found himself crawling up the basement stairs, growling and snarling, his blood splattering on all of the steps he pulled himself onto before slamming his fists against the locked basement door, screaming out for his father to open the door, demanding he be fixed and relieved of his pain immediately.
But there was no answer. No acknowledgement from anyone.
He was alone…………
Several Hours later, Josef would return home from The Local Police Station after extensive questioning about The Missing People involved with the very sick and twisted experiment he had conducted a few weeks prior.
With a smug look of pride on his face, he knew had escaped all suspicions due to his talent of being able to sweet talk anyone, even Government Officals seemed to believe him due to his Good Reputation as a “First Rate Surgeon.”
He returned to the basement where he had found his son, “his newest experiment”
Collapsed onto the basement floor, heaving and clenching his fists in anger, but unable to express all of his rage due to his body not adjusting to having extra limbs attached.
However, Malcolm raised up from the floor to glare up at his father, with every bit of anger he could manage, he grumbled
“How could you?”
All Josef could do was snicker, replying
“I am not above punishing who I see fit to be punished, even if it is my own flesh.”
Malcolm couldn’t believe how utterly cruel his own father was.
This was no man that he could look to and feel safe with any longer.
He was beyond danger, beyond being a threat.
Malcolm needed to kill him.
Malcolm used all of the strength he could to lunge at his father, using having three sets of arms to his advantage, grabbing and shaking Josef, who was dumbfounded and surprised by the sudden attack. He had no tranquilizing gun, no anything to defend himself.
This time, Josef found himself cornered in a horrible situation where he was being outmuscled by his own son whom he had turned into a experiment.
A pained grunt came from the older male, Malcolm was beating him within an inch of his life, fists flying, blood splattering against white walls, pained sounds that were likely had never escaped Josef, and he didn’t even bother to fight back because he knew it wasn’t just useless, it was impossible to attempt to contain Malcolm now.
It was a blood bath.
And Josef had lost this round.
And he lost, hard.
Josef found himself staring up at the ceiling of his basement, heaving to get breath in. But each breath felt like a hydrolic press shoving his chest back down into place. His legs and lower back plagued with the feeling of pins and needles.
Too weak to move, but he did manage a soft sound.
“I am sorry Malcolm .. “
After Malcolm had snapped back to his senses, he had realized what he had done. Justified? Yes.
However, it wasn’t in Malcolm’s nature to be this evil, and it was never in Josef’s nature to apologize.
In a moment of pure anguish, they switched places.
One became The Horrifying Monster.
The other, a Victim in Pain.
Not only that, Malcolm had hurt the only individual who could undo what had been done to him.
He was stuck as a six armed monster, at least for a good while until Josef healed properly from his injuries.
They had both royally fucked up in their own ways, and it took the breaking point of The Kind and Anxious soul, that is Malcolm, to figure that out.
It would be a few months that Josef and Malcolm were stuck in their own personal hells.
Malcolm stuck with Three Sets of Arms, not able to leave the house or wear a shirt, showers being difficult as well..
Josef with Injuries he likely wouldn’t bounce back from, ever. Due to his age.
However, Josef was healed enough to preform the removal of Malcolm’s extra arms.
A lot of apologies were exchanged, a lot of regret was expressed between the two, lots of tears between the both of them.
But, at the end of the day, there was understanding.
A bond slowly reforming after years of abuse.
Trust, ever so slowly blooming once more.
Josef finally admitted to having more problems than he knew how to handle. His impulsivity, His lack of empathy towards others.
Malcolm could clearly see a breakthrough, his father finally realizing after all of these years that Josef realized he had problems that needed to be tended to.
Forgiveness, at last.
And the biggest “I’m sorry” he could express to his son.
Undoing the worst thing he has ever done to anyone.
Removing The Arms That didn’t belong on his son’s body and repairing the damage that had been done to him.
Afterwards, Malcolm made a promise to his father that since he was the once to cause Josef limited mobility due to his injuries, that he wouldn’t go anywhere and would forever be there for his father, and take care of him as he continued to age.
But the biggest promises of all?
To never hurt each other ever again, to always care for each other and To never create another Centipede.
And you may be wondering? What happened to them after everything?
Malcolm went on to get his PhD in Neuroscience, helping many people across The World.
Traveling from Hospital to Hospital to save people with his extensive knowledge and experience. Even receiving the title of “The Leading Surgeon in Stroke Treatment” and of course, became a caretaker for his father when he isn’t out saving lives.
Josef finally settled completely into retirement, where he finally came to terms with his limitations. Deciding to pick up old hobbies such as learning songs on the piano, painting, and gardening (obviously with the help of Malcolm.)
Ayy if you made it this far in the story, I appreciate the hell out of you for taking the time to read this. This took me a good while to write. 😅 You are awesome.
