Ghost Orchid Chapter 1: Welcome To Briarcliff, a walking dead fanfic

AUTHORS NOTE: I am deeply excited to be back and to write again but understand the reluctance of the community to trust me. More details can be found on my profile but I hope they can accept my deepest apologies and that I can turn my writing and reputation around but becoming productive.

AUTHORS NOTE: This story is being co - written with WalkingPotterGirl14, check out her stories, Not Afraid, Daryl/Beth, All Of The Stars, Daryl/OC.

This story will have supernatural themes along with mentions of mental illness and self harming.

Summary: Daryl and the others have successfully saved Beth from the hospital but not without heavy losses, now travelling to the supposed safe Alexandria Safe Zone to find Maggie and Glenn, the group meet Riley Brooks a young woman with a mysterious past and the ability to see the dead both as walkers and spirits as they fight to survive and the terrifying mysteries surrounding Briarcliff Asylum as they battle the living and dead. Daryl/OC, Beth/OC, Rick/Michonne, Tyresse/OC, Beth/OC friendship. Co – Written with WalkingPotterGirl14. Rated T for violence, graphic language and graphic but will be later rated M for eventual sexual scenes.

Ghost Orchid

Chapter 1

She had been brought to Briarcliff Manor to get better, as her father had put it gently, that she was suffering from severe depression and exhaustion. She remembered wandering down the hallways aimlessly, as she saw other people who were actually ill, some of them being harmless. They had Schizophrenia, severe depression or MSPD, Multiple Personality Disorder, or there were the genuine dangerous ones that frightened her. The ones who enjoyed hurting people, beating them and hitting them.

Riley couldn't forget what she saw though, that she saw the dead, which she quite literally saw dead people in front of her, asking her to put them at rest, to help them move onto the Afterlife or the Other Side as one of them had said.

Her father and brother didn't believe her, they thought she was mentally ill so they allowed her to be taken away from the family apartment in Brooklyn and she had been placed in the care of Dr. Harper, who was in reality a monster that would give even Dr Jekyll a run for his money.

She hated him with a passion. Granted, she hated the asylum as well. It was a source of protection now, especially in the world they lived in, where the dead actually did walk everywhere she looked, their corpses littering the land. Some of them would still have their spirits attached to them, asking her to save them, to put them out of their misery, but sadly, she was kept in.

All because of Dr. Harper.

She didn't know how he was still alive now, but he was, and he kept her in like a caged tiger. She wasn't mentally ill. Not in the slightest. For a while she had been, but now? Not so much. She was better, but Dr. Harper seemed to enjoy inflicting pain on her.

Whenever he would see her talking to the dead that were still in the hospital, he would drag her away, to some stupid room in the middle of the place, and give her any source of pain that he could give her. Saying it would 'help her' but all it did would make her want to kill herself even more.

He would torture her with it, sometimes if to the point she resisted, he would slap her down and make her take it. It was a never ending source of pain that he loved to give her. He would just hide it behind his charming smile, which was evil to her. Everything about him was evil.

Now, she was still kept upon, just like the few actual mental patients in the asylum that were still alive, but since she was the one that was able to walk around and do stuff without freaking out, the surviving doctors and people of the group kept her to themselves, using her for runs and to kill the lurkers that would pile outside of the gates.

But other than that, they found her crazy, just like the others, and you know what? She didn't care. She was fine being alone if all people did was judge her for her weird power, and she'd rather be friendless now and never talk, then be with a bunch of fakes. Then again, when she was younger she did not think that at all.

The dead had been her only friends, the only people who would talk to her. She always wanted a real friend though, a girl or a boy to go to the movies with, to go to Central Park during the holidays. She had her family, her father and brother, but even now she doubted they cared about her if they didn't believe her story. They were alive, somewhere, but right now, all she did was care about herself, and the dead outside.

"Brooks!" Her last name was called. She turns around and meets the steel eyes of Dr. Harper, who grabbed her arm forcefully. She cringes slightly at the pain that shot through her skin. Both her arms were littered with scars from multiple attempts to kill herself, both before and after being put in the asylum. Now, whenever anyone touched them, she cringed. It was like a slap to the face.

"What now?" She growls at him. If anything his glare hardens.

"Malcolm saw a group coming this way. Three men, a baby and two women." Doctor Harper told her calmly, glaring at her as he dragged her back to her room. It wasn't exactly a cell as it had all of her things and clothes.

"You're not going to hurt them, are you?" Riley asked, afraid for the group that had no idea of what they were walking into. Dr Harper would kill them all if he got their hands on them and as for the women... Riley shuddered.

"Clean up and go have a shower. If we manage to grab that group, then we might be able to repopulate the world!" He shouted out to her as he left her alone. Her brow furrowed. Repopulate the world? He did know there were more than the amount of people in the asylum on the world right?

Sometimes she wondered if he should be the one in the asylum, not her. As she turned around to grab a new pair of clothes, a spirit suddenly appears in front of her. The ghost was an African American man, who looked no older than nineteen as he looked at her imploringly.

"Please, you gotta help that group. They just got away from Atlanta, saving a woman named Beth, but the woman with grey hair…she's fucking nuts." He said shakily. Riley furrowed her brow.

"And why's that?" She chuckles, grabbing a pair of clothes in her hands. "Someone can't just be crazy, or as you put it, fucking nuts. Something has to happen to them, or have a certain twitch in there step. Did you notice anything…off? Anything at all?" The spirit nods.

"She just…looks not right. There's something in her eyes, Riley. Something truly corrupted." Riley faces the man, her clothes under her arms.

"Well, even so, I have chance with these people. Dr. Harper likes me to look pretty, but that's about it. I never get to actually go near the people, for fear of me 'rubbing off my crazy,'" she says, using her air quotes with her fingers. "Honestly, there's nothing I can do with him constantly watching me. It just doesn't work out, sweetie."

She finally steps out of her room quietly and walks down the hall quickly, seeing the doctors that were watching her every move. She opened her mouth once, and they would be on her like a bee to honey. They would contact Dr. Harper in an instinct. But the spirit didn't seem to get that.

"You can't just give up like that. You've been here for ten years! You should know the places to hide from him." She turns a corner and breathes a sigh of relief when no doctors appeared.

"Yes, I do, but he'll find me anyway. He's like that." She finally appears at the shower unit and turns to the spirit. He still looked desperate. She sighs. "Look, I'll try, okay? But I can't make any promises." The spirit nods at her admission, and then evaporates into thin air.

She shakes her head and walks into the shower room, turning the knob to let the warm water run, and she takes off her clothes slowly, making sure the door was closed. That was another thing she had to do now. Once every blue moon, Dr. Harper would get lonely, and guess who would get the punch? Riley.

That's why she never trusted any guy that ever talked to her in this place. All because of him.

She finally steps into the water and lets it wash over her body, feeling the slight sting of the cuts on her arms and legs. That wasn't new. She was used to that. She had gotten plenty of scars due to this place. To be honest, she hadn't been allowed to take a shower in weeks. Right now, she was just going to enjoy the feeling of the warm water cascading through her short, blonde and wavy hair, and down to the floor beneath her feet.

"Please, you gotta help that group. They just got away from Atlanta, saving a woman named Beth, but the woman with grey hair…she's fucking nuts." He said shakily. Riley furrowed her brow.

"And why's that?" she chuckles, grabbing a pair of clothes in her hands. "Someone can't just be crazy, or as you put it, fucking nuts. Something has to happen to them, or have a certain twitch in there step. Did you notice anything…off? Anything at all?" The spirit nods.

"She just…looks not right. There's something in her eyes, Riley. Something truly corrupted." Riley faces the man, her clothes under her arms.

"You can't just give up like that. You've been here for ten years! You should know the places to hide from him." She turns a corner and breathes a sigh of relief when no doctors appeared.

That's why she never trusted any guy that ever talked to her in this place. All because of him.

She was trying to grow her hair long but every time she did, Dr. Harper would have Sister Jude cut it off, but she wasn't giving up. Before she had been sent here, she had lovely, thick wavy blonde hair that looked like her mother's.

She shook the feeling away as she washed her face and then washed her body with one of the few remaining rose scented shower body wash as she finished and started washing herself, scrubbing her skin free of the dirt and grease.

She then combed it with a black Afro comb and rinsed off properly before turning off the shower and wrapped a thick, fluffy black towel around herself as she got out of the bathroom and got dressed.

She then thought about the group...they had a baby with them. Could she really stand back and let them be brought to this hell?

No. She wasn't like Dr Harper who raped the women in the asylum and got them pregnant in the hopes of repopulating the world. His weird fucking dream.

She sighs and curses to herself. But how the hell would she be able to keep them safe. Anyone who came here was looking for refuge, a place to stay. This was barely it. Dr. Harper would act all nice in the beginning, telling them they were safe, but after probably a month of them being here, things would change.

Granted, people wouldn't leave. This place still had protection, food, shelter. It was just simply what Dr. Harper said, you would do, and sometimes, it involved the women. Now, they had probably around six women who were pregnant, all in different stages, and it was only going to get worse.

Maybe she could prevent this from happening. Maybe she could still keep this place a sanctuary, just give rid of the hell that was Dr. Harper, and everyone could be okay.

"BROOKS!" Riley jumps ten feet in the air, looking to the locked door. It was one of the doctors from before. "Hurry the hell up! That group is coming!" The footsteps of the doctor trails down the hall as Riley lets out a breath of relief, closing her eyes tightly before looking into the mirror.

Maybe she couldn't do this. She was smart, but with all the people here? Not so much. But she had to keep the baby safe, anyone safe. She had to somehow keep Dr. Harper from using them. How, she had no clue, but she would find something.

She finally places on her long sleeve shirt, covering up the scars on her arms, and shimmies on her black jeans. She grabs her vest and places it over her arms, letting it hang off her body and then sits down, placing her combat boots on her feet and tying up.

Standing once more, she looks in the mirror and slightly debates on whether to leave her hair up or down, but decides on letting it hang to air it out. It looked fine right now, even though it was shorter than she wanted it to be.

She finally steps out of the shower room and closes the door lightly, before the African American man appears in front of her once more, his eyes in a hallow gaze.

"They're here," he says quietly. She nods, facing the hallway and starting to walk, as he disappears again. She was nervous to see the group but at the same time excited. They hadn't had new people in ages, which she guessed was a good and bad thing, but maybe this would be the group to finally get rid of Dr. Harper, and this place would finally be okay.

She doubted it.

'I have to do something.' She thinks furiously. As she walks closer, she hears the voices of Dr. Harper and Sister Jude talking to the new group, who were also talking back, all voice she didn't recognize. She stopped walking and hid behind the wall, only to step out to her better judgment and look at the group, rubbing her arm slightly.

There were three men. A young African man around to be in his mid to late thirties, and a dark haired man with dark brown hair and a slight beard with a gun on his hip. There was a young boy wearing a sheriffs hat, a dark skinned young woman wielding a katana and there were three more people, the woman with curly, silvery grey hair and cold eyes, and a young blonde haired girl with a faded cut on her cheek, and she had a little toddler in her arms, and finally there was a young man looking around to be in his late thirties and he had a crossbow and a leather vest with angel wings on the back, as he looked at her curiously, as Dr Harper entered to welcome them warmly.

"Welcome to Briarcliff Manor, a sanctuary for the lost and broken. I'll introduce you to the people here." He said motioning for Sister Jude to come over. She was in her nun uniform and Riley shivered slightly.

"Girls you may enter!" She called out. Riley didn't move as others filed past her, the many doctors and people who ran the asylum and kept it running. A few, some of the female doctors, push past her, nearly knocking her on her ass as she moved to the side to let them through. She would glare, but Dr. Harper would see, and all shit would just go down from there.

Dr. Harper counted them one by one, as a few of the other patients who were mentally stable came out, until he got to the end and saw Riley slightly hiding away from him. He smiles and gestures his hand out, telling her to come out, but Sister Jude beat him to it.

"I got her, Dr. Harper," she says happily, walking over Riley, who still had her hand on her arm. Sister Jude glares when no one could see, and whispers fiercely to Riley "You clean up your act, sweetie. Remember, you're our property. Nothing more."

Riley lets her drag her to nearly the end, placing her next to one of the other patients, who kept her head down as she was placed. Everyone knew not to speak when Sister Jude spoke. It would only end badly. When she's successfully placed, Sister Jude smiles wickedly, but to the group it was nothing more than a pleasant one.

She walks back over to stand next to Dr. Harper, and the woman next to her nudges her shoulder. Riley spares her a glance to let her know she was listening.

"These people don't look so bad," she whispers. This person was Kristi, another mentally ill patient here who had actually been taking meds that were helping her. She had paranoid schizophrenia, which people thought that Riley had, but that wasn't the truth at all.

Riley shrugs, not trusting her mouth to speak as she looked anywhere but Dr. Harper and the group in front of her.

"These people, from the young to the small, keep this place running day in and day out. They're amazingly talented, and nice of all. Sister Jude here, had been keeping everyone in line since the beginning of this." A person from the group scoffs, Riley seeing it was the grey haired woman.

"Great, another religious nut," she muttered. Dr. Harper's brow furrows.

"What, you've come across someone else of Sister Jude's nature?"

"A priest," the man with the gun states. "We have no idea where he is now. He refused to kill people because it was against the 'word of God'." Sister Jude chuckles.

"Goodness no. We know how to protect ourselves. We're very well trained here." Riley and Kristi look at each other with raised eyebrows, but say nothing. All they knew was how to torture the patients. "Which brings us to another subject. Dr. Harper?"

The man smiles. "Yes. These people on the end here? Those six people? They are patients from before all this, but before you ask, they take medicine, and that's why they're out here. Believe it or not, these guys are very well trained, and know how to fight and survive. They're not a danger to anyone, but don't go near the west end. That's where the truly can't be helped are. They don't go out, but we do try to take care of them when we can."

Riley finally looks up from the ground and looks at the group, though reluctantly.

"Now, girls, introduce yourselves to the group." Sister Jude said in fake soothing sweet voice, and they all started introducing themselves to the new group in polite voices.

"I'm Remy Comeaux." Remy said as his dark brown hair fell slightly in his eyes. He suffered from severe depression, not to mention a recovering heroin addict and had tried slitting his wrists. Dr. Harper, however, electrocuted him whenever he got out of line much like Riley. The blonde girl looked at Remy curiously as the others introduced themselves.

"I'm Kristi Townsend." Kristi said shyly as the black man gave her an encouraging smile.

"I'm Riley Brooks." Riley says, suddenly feeling everyone's eyes on her as she looked down feeling nervous.

"Great. Two crazy girls and a guy who looks like something out of American Horror Story," the grey haired woman said bitterly.

"Carol back off, these people look harmless," The blonde haired girl said warningly.

"Beth's right, they seem like good people. Just ain't had a good life at first." The dark haired man with the crossbow said gruffly. Riley had looked back down but smiled only slightly when she heard the words. Kristi crosses her arms across her chest.

"The hell is 'American Horror Story?'" She mutters to Riley. She shrugs shakily.

"I don't know. Probably some TV show." They wouldn't know because they literally had no source to the outside world. They wouldn't have even known that what the hell was going on if Dr. Harper hadn't exposed it to them. Dr. Harper nods at the admission.

"Most of them do come from that background, but they're all in working condition now. Sometimes they have their moments, but other than that, they're okay. I'm going to guess you were heading to the Alexandria Safe Zone, am I correct?" The man with the gun nods.

"Yes…we have family who was heading there, said they had a cure of some sorts." Sister Jude laughs at this, a laugh that wasn't creepy to the new group, but oh so familiar for the patients at the asylum.

"That man cannot have a cure. There hasn't been one said. If there was, it would have been broadcasted over the radio. But the ASZ? It's not very safe, ironically. It actually doesn't even have the protection close to us. People still go there, as it is very known, but when all else fails they come here."

'And get nearly killed,' Riley thinks inwardly, looking at Dr. Harper, who was looking at her with an evil smile she oh so hated. Her eyes widen slightly and she looks away, rubbing her arms away, which mostly went unnoticed by the group in front of her, only one pair of eyes following her movements.

"If you need somewhere to stay, you can stay here for as long as you want, as long as you help out. When we say you need to do something, you need to do it. We may be nice, and sweet, but we need stuff to happen, and your cooperation is greatly appreciated."

"I think these people are harmless," the black man states quietly to the man with the gun, glancing at the amount of helpers. There were so many. "They've been holding up greatly. And if they seem weird, we leave." The man looks back up and makes eye contact with Dr. Harper.

Riley knows that look. It meant that they were staying. Every leader of every group that came by gave that look. And that meant she really had to look out for that baby in that blonde girls arms.

"We'll stay," the man says hesitantly. "But if this is some sort of joke-"

"Then you'll kill us all?" Sister Jude says. "We've heard it from every group that's come in. Luckily, that hasn't happened at all."

Dr. Harper smiles again.

"Now, why don't you introduce yourselves?" He says to the man with the gun. The man looks at his group, and then shrugs, while Riley looks up to see the faces that say the names.

"I'm Rick Grimes, and this is my son Carl and my daughter, Judith." Rick said gesturing to his son and the little toddler that was nestled in the young blonde girl's arms as she waved adorably and the young boy nodded at them. He'd get on well with Emma Daveau, a thirteen year old who had been admitted to the asylum after telling her teacher that her rich step dad had been sexually abusing her and big surprise, her mom believed the step daddy.

"I'm Tyresse Phillips." Tyresse said giving them all a kind smile, in which they all returned. Riley liked him and Rick, as they saw the grey haired woman sniff in disdain before speaking.

"'I'm Carol Peletier," she said, glaring at all of them suspiciously and glared at Riley as she glared back, though a bit less unknown, as Dr. Harper would kill her if he saw her glaring at one of the survivors. She could have sworn she saw a little girl beside Carol with a doll before disappearing.

She shook her head as the dark skinned woman with the katanna introduced herself to them with suspicious dark brown eyes that held a lot of mystery as she looked at them all.

"I'm Michonne Laveau," she says calmly.

"I'm Beth Greene," the blonde haired young girl said as Remy, Kristi and Riley looked at her and gave her shy smiles, which she returned warmly back.

"I'm Daryl Dixon," The man with the crossbow said quietly as he surveyed them with weary piercing blue eyes.

"It's good to meet you all. Kristi and Riley, please show Beth, Carol and Michonne to the medical wing and Sister Jude will check you all over and give the baby shots." He says, looking at Riley with a fake kind smile that said 'Don't fuck up or I'll hurt you both.'

"Yes Dr. Harper," Riley says innocently along with Kristi as they showed the girls up the grand staircase, leaving Doctor Harper alone with the men. Riley visibly took a breath of relief, keeping her eyes straight forward and right in front of her. She knew Sister Jude travelled another way to get to the medical wing, so she was free from her glare for a few minutes.

"How many people do you have in this place?" Michonne asks, looking around as they walked. Kristi decides to answer, as Riley was not very into talking publicly.

"A lot. We've had a lot of group come through here since all of this started." Carol lifts up her face and narrows her eyes at the two.

"How long have you been in this place?" she asks, emphasizing the 'you' on the sentence. Riley knew now why the ghost said that this person was crazy. She gave even Riley, who had really gotten used to all the shit she got at the asylum, the shakes. Something really messed up was going on in that woman's head.

"Well, I was here for five years before all of this, and including the two years of this apocalypse going on, it's been a total of seven." Beth's brow furrows.

"How did you get in here?" Kristi shrugs as she turns a corner.

"Severe paranoid schizophrenia. Used to see things that weren't there. Now, it's more tamed than it used to be, thanks to the meds they have here." That was about the only good thing that came out of coming here. She hated this place with a passion.

"What about you?" Carol asks Riley, her voice full of slight disgust. Riley shrugs, rubbing her arm again.

"By now, around ten years. Since I was 18." Michonne's brow furrows now.

"How?" Riley chuckles severely, shaking her head.

"You don't want to know. It's fine now." They finally arrive at the opening to the medical ward, and Riley pushes the doors open, looking at Sister Jude, who was preparing a shot for Judith. Beth held the baby closer to her, but Sister Jude shakes her head.

"Don't you worry, honey. It's just a shot. Just a pinch. Give me the child, please," she says, offering a smile to the woman. Beth smiles shortly, hesitantly giving the girl to Sister Jude. Riley watches the baby get taken from her hands, smiling slightly at the exploring face on the little girl.

"Is she yours?" She asks Beth. She shakes her head.

"No, but I do take care of her. The mother…she died during childbirth." Kristi looks down and bites her lip. She knew how that felt. Her own mother died during her birth.

"That sucks," Kristi says. Sister Jude keeps smiling.

"But she's a lovely child," she pesters, placing the shot near her skin. Riley looks around the room before seeing the same little girl from before, holding a doll that was near Carol. She was probably around twelve, not older at all, and placed a finger to her lips, telling Riley to be quiet.

"What the hell are you looking at?" Carol snarls at her. Riley jumps out of her skin, seeing the little girl disappear as she talks. Before she could open her mouth, Sister Jude stepped in front.

"Riley, how about you go back to your room, okay? We'll talk later." Riley stares into the fake pleasant eyes, the black orbs screaming 'don't talk a bit more, or else you'll get it.' Riley nods and looks away.

"Yes, Sister Jude."

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