A Bloody Cost
Once-ler strode down the hallways of the now abandoned factory. He thought about retreating to his Lurkem. He decided, while there were more entrances, the factory was easier to defend. It also had so much more space for him to hide, should they actually get past the various traps.
Only those who knew him well were able to get past them. Even then they were kind enough to come at night. When no one could follow them.
Only one other person had made it past his traps. How the boy did so, neither knew. However since he did, he would stay for the time being.
****With Ted****
Ted wasn't sure what the old man was going to do with him. He had been surprised when he heard a voice call down to the courtyard he was in from a balcony above.
"What are you doing here?" The voice said. "I know you didn't get lost."
Ted looked up. A silhouette was looking down. He couldn't speak. He felt like he was looking at a predator and he was the prey.
"Well?" The person said.
"Are you the Once-ler?" Ted found his voice.
The person jumped down. He was tall and dressed in a green suit. Long green gloves strangely complemented the entire outfit. A mask hid most of his face. "Why are you here, boy?"
"I was told that you could tell me what happened to the trees, if I brought you this stuff." He said quickly, holding out the items.
Once-ler cocked an eyebrow at the boy. "Follow me." He walked off. "But your bike under the balcony. The rain won't reach it."
Ted rolled his bike under the balcony and ran after the man.
"In." He held the door open.
"Thank you." Ted said before a sharp pain to his neck knocked him out.
"Kids are far too trusting." He heard Once-ler say.
****With Once-ler****
The boy had asked about trees and brought several strange items. "I can't remember who I told the snail part to." He turned down a hallway. "What to do about the boy?"
He opened the door to his former office. The monitors told him that the boy had come from the southern part in Thneedville.
He tapped some keys. The bike made things much easier. "Theodore Wiggins." He played several minutes of footage. "Hm. So it was her I told the snail part to. Still doesn't tell me what I should do with the boy. I don't want people come here again." Even should they have forgotten what happened, he didn't want company anymore.
Once-ler paced in front of his desk. Something he hadn't done in years. He had never needed to.
"What to do, what to do, what to do." He muttered.
****With Ted****
He woke up chained to what had probably been a office desk at one point. The mat he was on was strangely comfortable. He buried his face into it. It smelled sweet.
"That is what Truffula trees smell like." Once-ler said.
Ted jumped. How had the man snuck up on him.
"Of course, I have no idea what I should do to you." He looked down. He gave Ted the feeling that he was worthless compared to this man. "I do know that I don't want to send you back. I doubt you'd find your way a second time, but I don't want to take the chance."
"Why not?" Ted asked. "You did this. You destroyed the trees."
Once-ler grinned. It scared Ted. "It was under my orders to cut them down. It was my invention that needed the tufts. It was my will and power behind it all." He leaned down to stare in Ted's face. He scrambled back. The grin widened.
Ted gulped. He was trapped in a room with a completely insane man who seemed to think nothing of harming someone. He gasped as the man lifted him up by the neck.
He was no longer smiling. "It is also my will and power keeping you alive." Once-ler tightened his grip on Ted's throat. "Just a little more pressure and you are dead."
Ted whimpered. He was terrified.
"You didn't come here to just here a story, did you?" Once-ler said.
"No." Ted managed to gasp. He was held high enough that only one of his arms could reach the man's arms.
"You came for a tree." He guessed.
Ted nodded. He coughed and held his throat as the man dropped him.
"Such a pity." The old man closed the door behind him.
"I'm going to die." Ted said.
****With Once-ler****
'At least the boy had sense to be afraid.' Once-ler thought. "Though I wouldn't kill him. Not like that at any rate.
No, he wanted the screech and rumble of the factory floor. The screams as the boy was dragged into the gears. He grinned and licked his lips. One reason he wanted to resist the unions. If the unions were there where would those wonderful screams come from?
However the Black twins had pointed out that without the unions it would be unlikely that he'd get any at all.
He strode quickly down the stairs. He ran his hands along the gears, beams and levers that made thneeds.
"You may get blood again yet, my sweet." He told the machine. He placed his hands on a particularly bloodthirsty machine. It had claimed the lives of nearly thirty men and women. "Yes, you get the blood, I get the screams."
****With Ted****
He shivered. The Once-ler was going to kill him. There was no other thing he could think of.
He should've chickened out at the gorge. He should've had his head cut off by those blades. He shouldn't have left town at all!
****With Once-ler****
He had to wait. It was night time and a Sunday. That machine seemed to prefer its prey taken in the middle of the day and the week.
"So the boy has to survive for the next few days." He muttered to himself. "I have to make sure he survives. Yes, yes, yes. I must make sure. It will only be a few days. So food isn't a problem."
He turned left. "Water on the other hand. Water can be a problem." He tapped his lower lip. "I can make sure he drinks."
****Wednesday 11 am****
****With Ted****
Ted was terrified. The Once-ler had given him a uniform. Telling him that it would be easier on them both if he changed into them himself.
"I don't have much choice." He said quietly.
****11:45 am Factory Floor****
Ted was fighting the Once-ler every step of the way. The stairs had proved to stun him enough to get him to a machine. Ted could smell the blood. He felt terrified. The Once-ler had chained him to a pair pillars, to keep him from running.
A rumble and screech proved that there was still power in the factory. The fear now seemed focus on the machine in front of him. The chains kept him from moving more than a few inches either way.
"The workers took to calling this one Bloody Mary." The Once-ler said. "It is the most bloodied of all of the machines I used in all of my factories."
Ted paled. "Why?"
The Once-ler undid the chains. "I don't like company, or trespassers." He took Ted's hand. "You are both." He shoved the boy's hands into the gears. "Of course this is Bloody Mary's first child victim. I never employed. Too short and clumsy." Ted barely heard this over his own screams and the pain.
He looked at the Once-ler. He was grinning. He was saying something. Darkness over came him as the machine tore into his chest and heart.
The machine easily tore through the rest of the body. Once all of the boy had been taken through several times, the Once-ler pushed the emergency stop button on the nearby pillar. "Did you like it, my sweet?"
The machine gave a single clunk.
"It was better than nothing." The Once-ler said. He patted the machine. "Now, how to get you some adult meat. A pair of clunks. "If you ate me then who would get you meals?" There was a pause before a single clunk. He grinned. "Good girl." He walked away to watch for the next visitor.
We so wanted to call the machine Christine.
But it seemed cliché, so we didn't.
For some reason Bloody Mary worked.
This Once-ler is not a cannibal. He's just completely insane and loves the sound of people screaming and the sounds of his factory.
Don't ask where this came from. Just don't.