*Crash*
A bottle of alcohol hit the wall opposite of the Once-ler as what remained of the liquid seemed into the cracks in the floorboards. Once-ler rubbePd his eyes as he cracked open another bottle and began to drink furiously. It had been nearly three weeks since he cut down the last truffula tree and he left. Since then Once-ler had been locked in his room, keeping away from any human contact and only going into town for food and booze, in disguise of course. His business had gone downhill, naturally, as there was no other material as great as the tuft of a truffula tree, so all of his factories were moved into town to help some guy name O'Hare or something, he didn't care. He took another swig of the bottle, but as the warm liquid ran down his throat, it all came back up, like acid against his esophagus. "GODDAMNIT! " He yelled looking down at his clothes now covered in vomit. He got up to clean it in the sink when a shadow appeared in his window.
"So this is the man who was "Too Big to Fail" huh?"
That voice…it can't be! Once-ler thought. He wouldn't dare!
"I honestly didn't think you would sink so low. Sitting here in the dark, do you even know what day it is?"
"What are you doing here, I thought you left." Once-ler asked, not even bothering to look at the creature.
"I told you I would keep an eye on you, but after that little display…" The Lorax's voice trailed off as the smell of puke reached his nose.
"Well take a good, damn long look because this is my life now." As he finished cleaning up, Once-ler crossed to his desk, now covered in layers of dust, and lay his head down. "I'm a twenty-five year old man who spent his life working on a crappy thing that that no one will ever buy again, I have nothing to show for my time spent on earth, and I can't even afford to buy good booze." He exclaimed taking another long drink of the foul liquor. "Top of the world ma." He whispered to himself. "Why are you here?"
"To see how things have been, and I'm guessing they're not going good." He said, brushing away a roach that threatened to crawl up his fur.
"Oh no! I looooooove living in this hellhole of a house in this godforsaken city! The smog and trash and chemicals really tie the place together. And don't you just love the nice summer breeze, that is to say NO BREEZE whatsoever?" Once-ler took out a match and stuck it against his shoe, which he then used on the cigarette he acquired from his desk drawer. Taking in a big breath he proceeded to puff more smoke into the already polluted air.
"Why are you living in here anyway? What happened to that mansion of a house?"
"Gone."
"What happened to all your factories?"
"Gone."
"Well what about-"
"GONE! GONE! GONE! It's all gone alright! Everything I've ever owned, every fruit of my labor, every single goddamn thing that ever had to do with stupid thneeds is GONE!" He yelled grabbing a chair and throwing it at the Lorax (fortunately he ducked in time).
"Yeesh kid calm down."
"NO! NO! Don't tell me to calm down! You have NO RIGHT to tell me to calm down! You know when you can do that? When you have gone through what I've gone through! When you've suffered from the hell I've had to endure in my life, then you can have enough understanding to tell me what to do! And do you wanna know what hell is?! Hell is having to wake up every day of your miserable childhood knowing that you're worthless! Hell is having your mother complain to your entire family that you will never succeed in life! Hell is sitting in your room crying, knowing that right outside your door your family is talking about what a lame excuse for a human being you are! You wanna know why I chopped down all of those Truffula trees? Because I wanted to prove to my family that I wasn't a loser! That I could make something of myself and that they wouldn't have to be ashamed of me existing! So when you've underwent the torture that I've had the displeasure of experiencing THAT'S WHEN YOU CAN TELL ME TO CALM DOWN!" The Once-ler stood heaving as he finished, slowly sliding down the wall and collapsing on the floor.
Silence filled the room for a full five minutes before anyone spoke again. "What happened to you beanpole?"
"I don't…I just…I..." The Once-ler tried to speak, but his words were drowned out by the uncontrollable sobs that replaced them. "I tried so…hard…to prove them wrong. Why-why couldn't they just see what I could do? Why did things…have to come to this?"
"Listen Once-ler, we can't change the past. What's done is done. But that doesn't mean things have to stay this way. Find a way to fix this, or if you can't, find someone who can. Because unless someone out there care's a whole awful lot, nothing's going to get better. It's not."
"Wait…how am I supposed to fix it? Lorax?" Once-ler looked at the window previously stood. Getting up to examine the window, there showed no signs of him even being there in the first place. Once-ler proceeded to look out into the city when something very tiny caught his eye in the smooth dirt. Going out of the house, he picked up the small item, noticing that is was a seed. "The last Truffula seed. But you aren't meant for me are you? You're meant for someone much more important, someone who won't screw it up like I did. It may take a long time, months, years, decades. But don't worry, how bad could things possible be?"