Laravel is searching for CSS file in wrong directory when using Elixir

Why is Laravel searching for my CSS file in the wrong directory? I've seen this question posted a few times but it's never actually been answered with Elixir. I am assuming there are possibly some configurations that need to be done which aren't covered in the documentation (at least from what I can tell).

My layout.blade.php file links to the css stylesheet as follows:

  <link rel="stylesheet" href="">

My CSS file is loaded in the following path:

localhost/fresh/public/build/css/app-279b78681b.css

However,it is looking for the file here (it is notably missing /Fresh/public/ which I can't determine why?):

localhost/build/css/app-279b78681b.css

I am running an Apache 2.4 webserver for my laravel 5.2 project (not on homestead and not on a VM) and my gulpfile.js file has the following code:

elixir(function(mix) {
    mix.sass('app.scss')
       .version('/css/app.css');
});

All of that being said, if I were to change my layout.blade.php file to the following:

<link rel="stylesheet" href='css/app.css'>

It will capture my stylesheet that is located in the following directory correctly:

localhost/fresh/public/css/app.css

Sooooo, why can't it capture the css stylesheet when i use Elixir and why is it linking the wrong location?

via Chebli Mohamed