Descending into madness

Take a look and you'll see

"No no no... it's not real.. he's not real!"
Oncie said frantically, trying to get a grip on reality.
He started tearing up in confusion, wiping beneath his eyes at the moisture.
"Beanpole what is happening to you? Talk to me!" The Lorax demanded, standing by him looking out to the truffula tree forest.
Oncie shivered and let out a shaky breath.
"Come inside, fuzz and I shall tell you.." Oncie murmured, walking towards his tent.
Once inside he shut the door and sat down across from the Lorax.
He cleared his throat, resting his shaky hands on the table.
"I saw a green suited man, saying I shouldn't continue selling the thneed."
"He said-" Oncie tried to say, choking back tears.
"-it would only lead to my self destruction."
"He's not real. You need to keep telling yourself that." The Lorax said in his gruffly voice, running his hand over Oncie's, soothingly.
"The thing is.. he looked so much like me! DAMN IT! I need answers! Who is this man?" Oncie cried out, in frustration.
"Hey.. shh.. it's okay.." The Lorax tried to calm him down.
"NO! I'm going to find some fucking answers right now!" Oncie growled, storming out the door.
"Don't do it, don't do it. Don't do it." The voice repeated like a broken record, echoing in the distance. Oncie couldn't pinpoint a location from which it came, but breathed steadily to calm himself down.
"Fuck. You!" Oncie said beneath himself, pushing towards Greenville to the library to hopefully find some answers. He tightened the thneed around his neck as it was slipping from the eerie breeze in the air.
Setting foot in Greenville, a curious young girl padded up to Oncie, eyeing his thneed.
"S-sir.. what's that? I've never seen something so fluffy!" She said, excitedly.
"Why young lady, it's a thneed, the thing everyone needs!" He said, plastering on a false demeanor of pleasantness.
Just then her mother walked up to them.
"I'm so sorry about Eliza, she's a wanderer, say, what's that around your neck?" Her mother asked Oncie, laughing nervously.
"A thneed, it can be anything you want!" Oncie said, smiling.
"Ooh, are they for sale? I could really use a new towel.. and it's pink, so pretty!" The mother said, beaming and seemingly willing to pay him on the spot.
Oncie's mouth gaped open, this was progress!
"Oh course madam, they're only 3.98!" He said, rocking on his heels.
"Then I shall take it off of your hands." She said, picking up her daughter and handing him the currency.
Oncie gladly stuffed the money in his pockets, unraveling the thneed from his neck and putting it in the mother's arms.
"Thanks! Hey everyone look what I have!!" The mother yelled out to the crowd as Oncie turned tail and walked home.
When he walked through the door the Lorax was still sitting at the table, petting pipsqueak.
"Where's your thneed, did ya sell it?"
"I did actually, and I'm off to make more.." Oncie said, grabbing his knapsack full of plans and ideas, heading for the store that kickstarts ideas and inventions. Once he arrived back in Greenville a crowd gathered around him, holding fistfuls of cash.
Singing the Everybody needs a thneed song.
"OH YEAH WE'RE IN BUSINESS BABY!" He said, dancing in joy.
He smiled brightly as he entered the corporate shop.
"Welcome, can I help you?" The receptionist asked, looking down and filing some papers.
"Yeah actually, can I speak to someone who can help me fund my invention?"
The receptionist shot up at hearing his voice.
"Y-you're that guy who sold that scarf, right? The towns going crazy about you!" She said, sitting up.
"Yeah, that would be me..." He said, suddenly shy.
"Right this way Mr. Once-Ler, our manager would like to speak with you." She said, opening one of the backrooms.
"Have a seat, soon to be entrepreneur.." a deep voice boomed in the room, Oncie sat down on the chair opposite of the table.
"U-uh hi, I just wanted to know if there's a way I could expand my horizons on my invention, the thneed."
Oncie stumbling over his words, shifting in the chair.
"Yes, we have a way." The voice said, still not turning around to face Oncie, which made him more nervous.
"With all this cash I was hoping to be able to make a machine that would safely remove the tufts from the trees.." he said, lowly.
"That would take lots of money, luckily for you we have loggers that could just.. chop em down like toothpicks."
"C-chop them down? N-no I- i-"
"Don't you want to do what's best for your business?" The voice pressed, chair creaking.
At once, he felt a strange hunger for money, it would bring him fame and power if he did this, he felt it well inside him, demanding to have its needs met.
"Of course I do, it wouldn't hurt to chop down a *few* trees...