Soul-Searching [✔]

Chapter Six: What Are You Doing to Me?

Song of the Chapter: A Thousand Years by Christina (yes, again)

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Inside a black Infiniti QX30, sat a worried Belinda and Marcus, the former trying desperately to get in touch with Amias and the latter driving the pair to his client's apartment.

It had been a week since the pictures of Amias and Belinda had first appeared on the Internet. A week since one article accused the upcoming actor of being a liar and a deadbeat, prompting other articles that soon came after it to follow suit. A week since Amias had gone into a depressive state and cut off all ties with anyone and everyone he cared about. A week since Marcus, Belinda, Vivaan, Jennifer, and Amias' parents had slept more than 4 hours a night.

Earlier that day, Marcus had gotten in contact with Belinda and offered to drive her to Amias' apartment so they could try to fix whatever happened to him. According to the agent, Belinda might be the only person who could successfully get through to Amias. Marcus had tried to call, FaceTime, text, and even get the door open to Amias' apartment, but to no avail. No matter what he or others tried, Amias never answered.

When Marcus called her, he was pretty embarrassed that he had forgotten that he knew her.

"Wait," he said, halfway through their conversation. "You're Belinda."

"Yeah. . . We established that at the beginning of this conversation, Mr. Shay." she replied, laughing.

"No, I mean, you're Belinda as in the Belinda that Amias was friends with when he was younger. I am so sorry, miss, I totally forgot. I can't believe I forgot! That explains why Amias was texting me about you texting him for the past few weeks. It all makes sense now. I'm so, so, so sorry, Belinda."

Belinda laughed again at his amazement. "Ami was texting you about me?"

Stopping the car in front of the hotel Amias was residing in, Marcus turned to Belinda. "This is where Amias is staying. In order to obtain a spare key to his door, pretend to be his girlfriend — which shouldn't be too hard considering that's who everyone currently believes you are. His apartment is on the seventh floor, it'll be the fifth door on your right."

Belinda nodded and decided against telling Marcus that she might've been on her way to becoming Amias' actual girlfriend. That probably wouldn't end well with him. Then, she casted a look at the hotel. She blinked.

"Wait, this is a hotel. Why do you two keep calling his place an apartment? He's not in a complex."

"The room is built like an apartment, so Amias dubbed it an apartment." Marcus explained simply, opening his door then coming around the car to open Belinda's door. "Good luck, Belinda."

"Thank you, Mr. Shay. I promise I'll get him back to normal."

He smiled. "I trust that you will. And, Belinda? Call me Marcus; you've known me as long as Amias has."

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Getting past the staff on the ground floor was easy enough. The short trip to Amias' room and actually opening the door was even easier. The hard part of this mission would be getting Amias back to normal. Belinda knew that. She just hoped it wouldn't be too hard.

Once inside the room, Belinda could finally see why Amias called it an apartment.

As soon as she walked in, she was already standing in his large living room. In the middle of the room, there stood two black lounge couches facing each other with a small glass table separating them. On the wall furthest away from Belinda was a white large piece of flooring in the middle of the wall, creating two levels. Black stairs led up to the second level which had a door at the end of the small corridor. The first level, underneath the flooring, was a nook of sorts that had a full bookcase in a corner and small tables scattered around the floor.