Ted felt everything around him stop. The birds— the birds that he'd helped, no, the birds that they'd all helped, together— no longer sang from behind the branches of massive truffula trees. But was that real anymore? Was anything real? Who was standing in front of him?
Audrey, he tried to tell himself. My girlfriend, Audrey. We've been dating for a whole year now. But it wasn't Audrey, that much he could tell. Audrey's skin wasn't green and furry, Audrey's hair wasn't nearly that disheveled and... and... wig-like. No, this wasn't Audrey. But if this wasn't Audrey, then, quite frankly, Ted didn't know what was. Because the face he had always assumed was the face of his beloved had just been revealed to him to be nothing but a mere mask. What he's thought was Audrey for all of eternity wasn't Audrey at all.
"Who are you?" Ted asked the thing, his words heavy on his tongue.
"The Onceler," it said, voice dreaded and yet all too familiar.
"You!" Ted hissed, but anyone could've hear the venom fade from his words as he said it. Ted couldn't hate this thing in front of him, he supposed. He'd pitied it when it has given him the seed... and before that, well, Ted was loathe to admit it, but he's adored the businessman's cunning. And his face on the billboards advertising his cutting-edge products... he was dark and mysterious and undoubted handsome beyond compare. What if this lump in front of him could be that man again? That hot billionaire who oozed power and perfection?
"Me," the thing grinned cockily, and it shot a bolt of electricity to Ted's cheeks, which he could feel heating up visibly.
This is wrong, Ted told himself, the Onceler had been disguising himself as Audrey for a whole year! He couldn't possibly have feelings for the Onceler! Besides, there was no way the Onceler cared for him, he was just a teenage boy compared to this multi-millionaire entrepreneur. This situation was such a nightmare... and yet Ted couldn't help feeling like it was all some kind of wet dream, some kind of flawless fantasy.
CZYTASZ
Of lies and deceit
Duchoweyou've all heard of the classic story of The Lorax, but what would happen if everything you thought you knew... was completely and utterly wrong. (lowercase is intended)
