Martin lived in his mother’s basement in East London. The walls were stained with damp, and the only light came from a flickering CRT television. He was a small, sweaty man with thick glasses and a breathing problem. His job was collecting tickets at a concrete parking garage, a world of grey echoes and exhaust fumes.

The Sequencer

Martin turned his camcorder on her. "You go in the front, Mum."

"Full sequence complete," he whispers. "Now… for the sequel."

The filming was erratic. He used a heavy VHS-C camcorder, his thumb constantly over the lens. He would whisper-mumble to the camera: "For Mr. Six. He will see. I am the true fan."

The tape cuts to static.

He converted the garage’s disused sub-level into his operating theater. He tied his victims to stained mattresses on the floor. There were no anesthetics. Martin believed pain was "the adhesive of the soul."

His first victim was the prostitute who worked the corner near the garage. He offered her £50 for a "private session" in his soundproofed storage unit. Her name was Gina. She never saw the staple gun.

His mother, a monstrously obese woman, spent her days screaming at him from the top of the stairs. His only comfort was a battered DVD of The Human Centipede . He watched it every night, rewinding the surgery scene, memorizing the sutures. For Martin, the film wasn't grotesque; it was beautiful . But he felt it lacked ambition. Three segments were a joke. A real centipede needed length. Twelve, he decided. Twelve made a "Full Sequence."

The horror wasn't just the physical act. It was the waiting . The garage was cold. The rats were bold. Victims would pass out from shock, only to wake up screaming as the digestive juices of the person in front of them began to burn their raw throat.

One victim, a bodybuilder named Ashley, tried to fight. He tore his restraints. But his mouth was fused to the stomach of a woman in front of him. When he pulled back, he ripped her flesh. He collapsed in a spray of bile, and Martin calmly re-stapled him, humming a nursery rhyme.

The climax came when Martin’s mother, suspicious of the smell, waddled down into the sub-level. She held a rolling pin. She saw the twelve-person centipede writhing on the floor, a chain of moaning, weeping flesh. For a moment, even she was silent.