A/N: Watched The Lorax with my partners as it was the younger one's birthday, and just had to write this.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own The Lorax!
The Once-ler was so tired.
His gloves were stained with dirt, the knees of his once finely tailored green trousers just as caked with earth as he dug into the ground almost desperately. The moonlight was dimmed through the smog choked sky, the air thicker than the forest that had once graced the land. He knew he was crying, but it was just so normal to him by this point that he paid it no mind. He had been so foolish, so careless.
"Grow... Please, please grow." He begged the tiny seed as he planted it into the freshly dug hole, covering it with dirt once more.
All around Once-ler were hundreds -if not thousands- of similar mounds of earth, scattered as far as the eye could see. Each one of them housed another truffula seed. Each one of them failing to yield even a single flicker of green life. Each one of them a hollow reminder of the man he had become, and the man he used to be.
"Grow. Grow!" He half sobbed, his shoulders shaking. "Why won't you grow?"
He knew deep down why they wouldn't grow. Why they couldn't grow. He had ruined the earth he was planting them in. He had poisoned the water he was supplying them. He had doomed himself to failure by being greedy, by ravaging the land so carelessly. He was alone, miserable, and he had no one to blame for it but himself.
"Then you leave me no choice. If you're not gone by the time the sun sets on this valley, all the forces of nature will be unleashed upon you, and curse you until the end of your days."
Once-ler could remember the Lorax speaking those words to him so clearly, but he could also recall just how little he had believed them. A curse indeed. One he had brought down upon himself by his own hand. One he had crafted himself in his own arrogance. And now, he had no friends, no family, and no hope to fix this. No hope at all, unless...
His tired blue eyes turned to blearily look at the stone the Lorax had left him. 'Unless'. Unless what? It felt like he was being taunted, toyed with, even punished for what he had done to the valley by just that one word.
Unless.
Tears burned his eyes, fogging the sight of the etched stone even more than the smog had already done. Once-ler knew that this was his own personal hell for what he had brought to the former inhabitants of the valley. The Bar-ba-loots, Swomiee Swans, and Humming Fish all suffered pain, fear, and starvation because he stripped away their home for his own gain. Pipsqueak, Melvin, and all the others had left him with the hope of finding a new place that could sustain them.
Once-ler turned his eyes to the mound of dirt below his hands. Oh God, he had destroyed so much. All the while demanding to know just how bad his actions could possibly be if he was still able to further his business.
"Who cares if a few trees are dying? How bad could this possibly be?"
"And I'm just going to keep biggering, and biggering, and nothing is going to stop me!"
He had been so incredibly arrogant, and now he was paying the price. He was reaping the despair he had sown.
"Please grow... Please, please..." He whimpered. "Please come back... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. Please, just come back."
"Pipsqueak. Melvin. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please come back. Lorax, I promise I'll do better this time."
"Please… please grow…"