Promise // Mullette

chapter 16

- Hercules -
After finally sleeping the night before, my brain feels so much clearer and ready to tackle the problems at hand. Alex is still passed out on the couch, so I'm trying to make breakfast as quietly as possible while I come up with a plan and let him sleep. God knows when the last time he slept this long was, and when it'll happen again.

I can tell he's been stressed out lately and pretty anxious. It's concerning that he doesn't talk to John about what's going on but I understand that it can be hard to do. As long as things don't get worse, I don't want to get in the way of their communication and go behind Alex's back to tell John something that he told me in private.

In the meantime, I cook some scrambled eggs and think of how I'm gonna get Laf back to me. His phone was abandoned at his house, which sucks because there's no way of tracking his phone to find where he is.

I decide to scroll through my social media feed for the first time in a while before getting an idea. Maybe someone on here knows where he could possibly be?

We never got the chance to talk about our accounts on social media so I never got the chance to follow his accounts. I open Instagram and do a quick search. His account pops up right away, just being @ Lafayette. I scroll through pictures of him in France before realizing I can see his tagged photos. I click over to the section and scroll through them. A lot are from who I assume is his now ex-girlfriend, Adrienne, who he told me about the first time we met.

There's something about Lafayette that I just can't shake. Something so familiar that it's at the tip of my tongue but I don't know where I could've possibly met him before. He's so recognizable, lanky and tall with his big fluff of hair. If I had met him before, wouldn't I know? I don't know.

Just before I left Instagram, I saw something that caught my eye. The app had refreshed and a new photo had been added under Laf's tagged photos. From an account named @ samuelseabury. Huh?

I clicked on the photo, waiting for it to load. It was a picture of a TV screen in a huge basement, and a movie I didn't recognize was on the screen. Why was Laf tagged in this photo?

Searching for more information, I scanned the picture and read the caption.

"Watching a new movie with a new friend! You sure don't need to be royalty to get to experience this movie theater. Too bad you have to clean for royalty tho!"

That's weird. And it makes no sense. Royalty? What? I continued to look through the picture and decided to check out more of this. I clicked on this Samuel Seabury's account and looked through his photos. I found quite a few odd things.

A post from a while ago: "Phone's going away for a while! Not gonna be posting on here til I get out". Is he in jail or something?

Next post after that was more recent, but still a while back: "Bought a new phone! Shhh, it's a secret. Good to be back online, waiting til I can be back in person" Wait. Maybe this is leading me in the right direction. He bought a secret phone?

The last post before the one of the movie screen was a picture of a house. It was absolutely huge, I had never seen it before. I could see the address number, but not the street name. The caption: "Doing some garden clean-up today. A house fit for Royalty. Au reVoirE!"

Hold on just one second. A...V...E. Royalty Avenue? Is this a trick? Did he take Laf? I need to message him.

Before I can continue, I hear a groan and a few shuffling steps. Alex must've woken up. Maybe I should talk to him about this whole mess. What if this is just some big prank and I'm making a big deal out of it? Maybe he tagged Laf on accident?

Before I can speculate anymore, Alex wanders into the kitchen, looking tired but honestly more well rested than I had seen him in quite a while.

"Morning, Herc." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes. I slid a plate of eggs and bacon across the counter to him and he nodded in thanks, picking up a piece of bacon.

"Morning. Hey, is it to early for me to sound a little crazy?" I asked. He shook his head no, and I could practically hear his brain whirring, trying to come up with some clever response. Clearly, he was a little too out of it still, so he just asked why.

"I think I'm getting hints of where Laf might be." I said, showing him the pictures and the captions, explaining my logic to him. At this point, his bacon had dropped from his hand onto his plate and his eyes were wide.

"Jesus, Herc, when did you become a full on detective? It's worth a shot to find out, I mean, seriously, what if you're right? This is huge!" He exclaimed.

"Should we make a game plan?" I asked, already thinking. If this really was where Laf was, I already knew I just had to beat someone's ass for taking him from me. My brain felt like it was going 100 miles an hour.

"Yes. But we should get John too, he might be able to help." Alex replied. I nodded and started drafting a text to John, telling him to come over and that it was important.

I need to find Laf. I can't bear him being gone much longer.

And if I get there too late? I'll never forgive myself. I have to save him.

a/n: welcome baaaaack everyone