Verdict of Secrets.

Ⅲ; better.

It wasn't until the next morning, after a twisting night and a strong cup of coffee, that Luka found himself walking down the street to Jordan's house. It was a chilly start to the day and even though it was summer he had to pull his jacket tight around his torso.

 It wasn't all too early, in his opinion, and he wasn't surprised when Jordan opened the door looking like as if she had been up for a while, fresh from a shower and hair wrapped in a dark iris towel. 

 "Come on in," she greeted him and stepped aside to let him go through. He only smiled at her and watched as she closed the door. "You know you look like shit, right?"

 "I sure do," he answered to her blunt honesty and rubbed his temples carefully. He could hear her laugh quietly at his response before she decided to walk past him. 

 "Come on, I have something that'll make you feel better."

 She waved for him to follow her into the kitchen and together they entered the open area. He was fairly unsure of what to do, mostly because he noticed a little boy sitting by the kitchen table, so he just stood there resembling a statue.

 "Oh, this is my brother. Vinnie, say hi," she casually demanded the boy and he obeyed with a quiet 'hello'. She seemed happy with the small word and started taking out a pot and some ingredients for what she was about to make him.

 "What's that?" Luka asked curiously as she was heating the substance and tried ignoring the little boy staring at him. 

 "You don't wanna know. Just drink it." 

 Her smile said it all. It was somewhat devil-ish and filled with humour, which lead him to hesitate when she held out a cup of light green liquid in front of him. His hands fit around the office mug and he frowned when he tasted the hot beverage. 

 "What is that?" 

 "Milk, herbs, coconut sugar and apple cider vinegar. My mum used to make it all the time." She gave off a slight chuckle and drank some herself. 

 After Luka said more about how awful it tasted they moved on to the living room to do some actual work. Jordan's laptop was set in front of them, ready to revealing this important information of hers, and the cups rested safely in their hands. Luka still didn't like the taste of it, but it was very refreshing after a few seconds of settling.

 "Okay, so I started searching for some information on when the house was rebuilt in 1904 and apparently there are built-in traps all over the property in case of intruders. Check this out," she informed him and the clicked on another Chrome tab.

 "In the last twenty years there've been twenty tourists and fifteen locals missing in the area. Also, for every new owner there's been one person in the household disappearing without a trace. I mean, how'd you explain that?"

 Luka watched as she scrolled down an endless amount of articles, missing-people posters, police reports and other pictures that were taken along with the disappearances. The page included a lot of children and he shook his head in disbelief.

 "Is this on the property or just nearby?" he found himself asking and she immediately went to the top of the page again. 

 "It's different for each case. If I've got time I'm going to map 'em and see if there's a connection. I mean, the property is huge and far out of town so there's only the woods around it." 

 "It could be anything... animal attacks, kidnappings, running away. Hell, alien-abduction would make more sense." Luka let out a puff of air, almost like a defeated scoff, and Jordan turned to him swiftly.