John is frustrated as he stalks across the gravel pathway. He shouldn't have expected anything less from Alexander. Alexander never said Eliza was dead, but for Eliza to come back is just improper.
He should not have expected it to last. Everyone he loved left him eventually. Why should Alexander be any different?
John loved his family dearly. But when his father found out that he likes males better than females, Henry had not been able to contain himself.
John had been banished from their home. Luckily, he has been resourceful since a very young age. He had taken a significant quantity of money to live off of and then disappeared completely.
With the money and his wit, John was able to book comfortable stays in hotels and the like. But John was extremely careful. He made sure to save enough money and eventually got a job.
One of the frequent customers of the coffee shop he worked at was a boy who came in every day with disheveled clothing and ordered one black coffee before sitting down to scribble on a sheet of paper. John personally found this boy quite handsome, especially when he worked, so John went up and talked to him once.
The boy introduced himself as Alexander and talked quite politely and intellectually to John. John felt himself falling more in love with Alexander by the day.
One day, John handed in his uniform and left with Alexander. Alexander had warned him that he had no money at all.
John had shaken his head, and the two of them had soon purchased a tidy little home using John's money.
John's thoughts return to the present. And after all the money John spent, Alexander still prefers Eliza and would instantly go back to her.
He feels anger rise within him, so he takes deep breaths and clenches and unclenches his fists to calm down.
The streets are mostly empty at this hour of night, so John is on his guard. People can spring out of nowhere.
He walks without paying much attention to where he is going, until he ends up in front of City Hall. The lights are on, so Mayor Jefferson is likely still awake with Philip.
John thinks back to the night when Philip came knocking at their door. Philip seems convinced that the mayor cursed everyone in this town.
Cursing everyone is an evil action, and Jefferson obviously is not the kindest of souls. But he shows a genuine devotion to Philip, much the same as Alexander shows toward the boy.
Guess evilness doesn't extend to children. Or Mayor Jefferson is not all bad. John thinks.
But he stops there, because that brings him back to Philip. Philip is Alexander's child with Eliza. In fact, John is not sure if he wants to continue being part of this plan. And how does Philip know about Jefferson cursing everyone, if he did? Philip is too young to have been around for that. Another fishy part of Philip's story.
Of course, that depends on John's opinion first. Could Philip's story be true? Is everyone really cursed? How did Jefferson do that, if he did? And how is the curse supposed to be broken?
So many questions with no answers. John ponders what his next move should be. He doesn't really want to go back to the hotel room, but he will not have anywhere to sleep otherwise. No doubt Alexander and Eliza have gotten up to some kind of mischief in his absence. Alexander as much as explained this intention while John was in the room.
Giving up, John decides to walk back to the room. Eventually, he ends up in front of a tidy house with very pretty shrubs. He's not entirely sure why he stopped here, but something is very familiar about this house. He takes note of the address. 96000 Washington Heights.
John has never lived in Washington Heights, so it can't be familiar to him. But it is. Why?
Shaking his head, John walks onward, a sensation of familiarity overcoming him. Stopping for a moment, John realizes that he has absolutely no idea where he is, but he is definitely not near the hotel.
He does not have his phone, having left it in the room in his outrage and rush to get out of the hotel room. He has no way to find his way back to the hotel nor to contact Alexander, and there is no one on the streets at this hour.
John sinks down against a brick wall that is mostly rubble and graffiti to puzzle out what to do next. To pass time, he thinks back to the conversation that he and Alexander were having prior to Eliza's arrival. The Dark One offered to help find Alexander's parents. John doesn't know much about the Dark One, but he is probably not the best person to make deals with, regardless of the outcome. John has heard of some quite devious demands as the result of dealings with the Dark One, among them a firstborn child.
John thinks about his friend, the only one he can recall while he was on the run from his family. Her name was Martha. She knew about John, but she never judged him for it. One night, John had been huddled under a bridge crying about his luck (which he rarely did, that was one particular occurrence) when the young lady stumbled upon him.
She had offered him condolence without requesting anything else from him, which was the first time such a thing had ever happened to John. Ladies always wanted a room, or food, or something else, from him. If John ever needed someone to go to a party with him, Martha would quickly volunteer to join him, but never engage herself in anything in particular. She always stuck around John to make him feel comfortable. John suspected her intention was to help him look straight.
If this was her intention, she had never spoken of it nor asked John to act on it in any way. Martha was the best thing, save Alexander, to ever happen to John.
One day, Martha had suddenly disappeared. She had not left any word of where she had gone nor if she had been taken or anything. She simply stopped visiting John, and John had no way to track her movement or departure at all. John wondered if she had been kidnapped or killed or if he would ever see her again. He sincerely hopes she has not been killed, but it is hard to tell while in the middle of the city.
John is distracted by a sound and motion a few feet away from him. He looks up to identify the source.
Out of the shadows, Lafayette slithers into John's frame of view.
"Ah, Monsieur Laurens! I have been wishing to speak to you for quite some time. It is very kind of you to present yourself to me in this way."
Uh oh. That is all John has time to think before he is hit behind the head with some sort of blunt instrument.
Hello, wonderful people! I present John Laurens! I didn't mean to include Martha...that just sort of happened. Shall I bring her back in future? Suggestions are very welcome!
Please be safe. I don't own anything except the grammar and spelling mistakes, please point them out if you find any and I'll quickly correct them. Reviews are appreciated!
-HamiltonAsparagus