“Maya?”
The voice was weak.
Maya screamed.
Lina was alive.
Thin. Pale. But alive.
Rescue and Reckoning
The police came quickly this time.
Elliot Hargreeve was arrested that night. His storage units held evidence tied to three other missing persons cases, some dating back years.
He had studied records obsessively—how long someone could survive in confinement, how soundproof rooms could be, how to avoid detection.
Lina had figured it out.
After
Lina recovered slowly.
So did their family.
The story made national headlines:
“Teen Saved by Sister’s Obsession With World Records.”
Maya hated the headline.
It wasn’t obsession.
It was love.
Months later, Maya returned the battered Guinness World Records book to Lina’s shelf.
This time, she added her own note inside the cover:
“Records aren’t just about the best or the worst.
Sometimes, they’re about survival.”
And somewhere in the margins, Lina smiled.
