ꜱʜᴀᴅʏꜱɪᴅᴇ ꜱᴇᴄʀᴇᴛꜱ || ɴɪᴄᴋ ɢᴏᴏᴅᴇ || ꜰᴇᴀʀ ꜱᴛʀᴇᴇᴛ

09. ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇᴠᴇʀ ꜱᴛᴏᴘ?

"Jesus Christ!" Ziggy exclaims as Deena and Josh rush back into the room to see Ziggy holding a knife near Sam, "Look at her! I told you it wouldn't work! There's no ending it." Deena breathes heavily looking at Ziggy, "What is it?"

"Where's Aurora? We need to talk. She has some very important questions to answer."

"She's in the living room."

Ziggy and the two children enter the living room to see Aurora pacing anxiously lost in thought. Her head snaps to the children who just arrived, questioning what happened to them. 

"Sit down. This is going to be a shocking conversation." Deena says with a straight face looking directly into Aurora Goode's electric blue eyes. Aurora's heart skips a beat, they knew and now Ziggy was going to know. She would never forgive her friend, and every decision Aurora has made since that night flashed through her mind. But she pictures Nick and remembers everything she did was for him, to protect him because she loves him with all that she is, despite his flaws.

Ziggy thought through her encounters from that night. From when she first spoke to Nick, to the moment she left Aurora alone with him and then when Alice, Cindy and Melissa died. She couldn't hear Deena talking. Wondering whether Aurora knew, but immediately writing it off because her friend, her best friend, who's been there for her, who nearly died that night with her, wouldn't do that.

"And Mrs Goode knew everything. She's been protecting him." That certainly snapped Ziggy out of her own mind.

"No. No! Aurora wouldn't do that! She was new, there was no way she knew back then. She wouldn't..." Ziggy turned to her friend who was completely silent, sitting still with a pained look on her face, "You wouldn't... You... Your sister died! Tell me it's not true! Tell me!" Aurora closed her eyes. She let out a sigh, composing her thoughts.

"I didn't know. Not to begin with anyway" She explained calmly, Ziggy shifted away with a horrified look. "You have to believe me Ziggy. I didn't know until I went back for Nick, and we tried! We tried to save you all"

"Your sister died! And you married him, he killed so many people. You had to go to therapy for years because you were traumatised! He ruined our lives!" Ziggy look disgusted and exasperated. Aurora knew Ziggy wouldn't react well, she couldn't blame her. She was protecting a murderer after all.

"I know. I know, okay?! I have to wake up and live with that but Nick... Nick didn't want this. Solomon Goode ruined his life. He chooses or the Devil chooses for him. He thought that if he chose and he was there, he could save them but he can't because that's not how the curse works." Aurora tries to explain gradually becoming more emotional.

"I hate it, but I love him and I can't imagine life without him. I know it's wrong, I... I'm looking for a way to get him out of the deal. I want to raise a child with him but I can't pass this curse onto them and I can't lose him, Ziggy, I can't." Aurora cries, the burden of hiding her husbands secret had slowly been destroying her.

Aurora explained that she and Nick were looking for a way out but Solomon has as good as ruined any chance of escape. 

"I'm sorry Ziggy, so much, I should've told you the truth but I didn't. I know you can't forgive me but help me find a way out for him, I swear I will spend the rest of my life making up for it. There must be a way to stop it." She pleaded. Ziggy looked down conflicted, she knew it wasn't Aurora's fault, she couldn't choose who she loved, Ziggy understood that all too well, having fallen in love with the best friend she made all those years ago at Camp Nightwing.

"When Sarah Fier showed me the past there was someone who looked like you Aurora. She was called Eudora Black, she loved Solomon Goode, but she couldn't agree with his evil ways and what he did to Sarah, who was her best friend. He gave her a choice, stand by him or hang for witchcraft. She was later hung at the same tree." Ziggy listened intently. Looking at Aurora, she could see how this would play out. "The only way to stop it is to kill Goode," Deena revealed.

"Black...? That's my maiden name, I don't want to kill him but this curse, it needs to end. I don't know what to do" Aurora looked lost.  Ziggy stared at her friend intently, trapped in a life that she didn't want. There was no freedom, Aurora had said that herself, they needed to kill Nick Goode and Ziggy would pick up the pieces of Aurora's shattered heart. 

"So... we have to kill him. We need to kill Nick Goode." Everyone looked at Aurora, the woman silently letting tears fall, conflicted and thinking about everything that happened throughout her life. One conversation played in her mind on a loop.

"Would you ever stop? Even if it meant you lost your good fortune?"

"No, I can't. For you, for my brother, my mom, my ancestors who risked everything for this."

"But I don't want this, Nick! You're killing people! Innocent people. Alice, Cindy, Tommy! Nurse Lane for god's sake! They don't deserve this!"

"What's a few names? We have everything you could ever want! You promised you would follow me to the ends of the earth. Where's that dedication now? It's time anyway, I've chosen a new name, Ryan Torres."

"Screw you, Nick. It's not a few names and you know it! It's everyone that gets murdered too! And their loved ones who can't find peace. I love you but I can't do this, it will get you killed!"

"Don't you dare walk away from me! You're involved in this too! You leave and everyone will know why you moved here, what your sister did."

"How could you?"

"Rory? Aurora! Come back! I didn't mean it. Aurora!"

"We have to kill Nick" Aurora whispers, "I'm so sorry, I will do what I can to make up for my mistakes but we need to go. I called him. I called Nick." Aurora rushes. Standing up urging Ziggy and Deena to do the same, Deena ran to inform her brother who was watching Sam. 

Ziggy stopped Aurora. Holding the woman closer, basking in her scent. Comforting the woman who has agreed to help kill her husband, the man she loves and vowed to protect.

"It's not your fault, you made shitty choices but it's his fault. I know you love him but you're making the right choice and I'm proud of you for that. I know Melissa would think that same."

"Please don't justify my actions. I know I was wrong, I was young and in love but Melissa and Cindy didn't deserve that and now I'm going to fix that. I thought it was so powerful but now, I know it's a curse and I want it gone." Aurora timidly smiled at Ziggy, reminding her of the girl she met before she and Nick got closer, the girl she saw before the night in 1978.

Both women hear struggling and Aurora immediately takes off, Ziggy hot on her heels. Rory notices Sam clawing at Deena and quickly knocks Sam out with the first object she finds. Deena pants looking up at the woman who saved her life, the woman she wasn't sure she could trust but now knew she could.

"Aw, I've been wanting to do that all day. You still have great aim" Ziggy noted thinking about that night in the outhouse when she punched Shelia.