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fanficshiddles · 7 months

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The Redbridge Hunts, Chapter 1

Summary: Claire moves to Demsdale to take up a new job as an assistant teacher for one Loki Laufeyson. She's also very intrigued with all of the rumours within the borough of Redbridge. However, as she starts to fall for Loki's charm and good looks, she also learns that all of the rumours might not just be rumours after all.

NOTE/WARNINGS: Vampire/Teacher Loki, blood, talk of death, violence, dark-ish scenes, but fluffy Loki.

Also: I've tagged the other characters, but really, you can imagine whoever you want as them.

And a BIG Thank you to @toshisurtsdottir for helping me with this fic! x

Claire shivered as she looked down at the water flowing beneath her, glistening red in the pale moonlight.

‘So, the rumours are true.’ She whispered.

The snow crunched under her feet as she made her way across the old arched bridge, and then started following a small path through the park that followed alongside the river upstream.

There were rumours that every year without fail, on the fourth of January, the river always turned red for a few hours in the evening. And now, she had finally been able to confirm that rumour.

Claire had always been fascinated by Demsdale, a city rumoured to have a large vampire population, if you believed in vampires that was… Claire’s rational side didn’t really believe in it, she knew there had to be a reasonable, scientific explanation for it all. But at the same time, she had always been intrigued with the idea of vampires being real.

It was said that many authors of vampire books had come to Demsdale for inspiration. More-so the borough of Redbridge, where Claire stood currently, because of the red river. So, even if the rumours weren’t true, just being where many great books were born was quite exciting in itself.

Claire had just moved there between Christmas and New Year, due to start her new job tomorrow as an assistant teacher.

She continued her way through the park, keeping in line with the river until it came to an abrupt bend and went through a forest situated at the edge of the borough. Although, as she continued following it through the tall trees, she soon found she couldn’t go any further as an intimidating, high barbed wire fence blocked her way.

‘Damn it.’ She hissed and pulled her jacket in closer around her neck as the cold began creeping in.

A loud noise, similar to a bone snapping, came from behind her and made her jump, she spun around quickly and tried to get her eyes to focus. Whilst there was some light that came from the lanterns in the park, it was still dark enough for her eyes to play tricks on her. She could’ve sworn she had just seen a large shadow ducking behind a tree not too far from her.

Calm down, Claire. It’s just your eyes playing tricks on you… Just make your way back to the park. She thought to herself, trying to calm her nerves.

Inhaling deeply a few times to try and steady her shaky breathing, she began making her way back to the safety of the park. She kept her eyes on the ground to follow her footprints back out towards the path so she wouldn't get lost.

But just as she neared the edge of the trees, it sounded like there was footsteps following her through the snow. Her back stiffened as she hastily emerged from the forest, even though the noise abruptly stopped, she kept moving to get plenty of distance from the intimidating trees.

Once back in the light of the park, she bravely turned around and looked at the dark forest. Now that she was looking back at it, she mentally slapped herself for going in there in the first place. Redbridge was, after all, well known for murders and kidnappings. Not that there was a crazy amount regularly, but just more so than anywhere else in the city.

There was no sign of anyone now, allowing her to relax. But her calm moment didn't last long, when a deafening noise filled the whole area. It sounded like high-pitched screams and leather slapping all at once. Claire’s heart immediately began racing again. She turned on her heels and ran as fast as her legs could carry her. Seconds later, a group of bats flew overhead out from the trees and dispersed around the park.

‘Bloody hell.’ She gasped as she stopped to catch her breath again, hand clutched to her chest.

‘Time to go home.’ She muttered and finally made her way out of the park. She felt better being back on the streets, with cars and plenty of people going about.

It didn’t take too long for her to get home either, she stayed just on the borderline of Redbridge. It was ideal as it was in close proximity to the school she was going to be working at. As soon as she had locked the door behind her, she grabbed one of her history books and flicked through the pages until she found the one she had been looking for.

Articles about the history of the city. They claimed that the bridge Claire had stood on just minutes earlier, was where the very first five vampires were turned by a spiteful witch looking for revenge on people of the former village of Demsdale, for brutally murdering her sister. She had trapped five men on said bridge and cursed them into blood sucking monsters, hoping they would bring terror and death to the villagers.

That was apparently why the borough earned the name Redbridge, and where the rumour of the blood river started too. The book said the curse was brought upon the men on the fourth of January, where every year thereafter the river turns red on that very night, but just for a few hours.

Claire hadn’t truly believed it at first, but after seeing it with her own eyes tonight, she wasn’t sure what to believe anymore. She had hoped to find some kind of logical explanation, but she wasn’t about to go trespassing over barbed wire in a freaky forest to find out.

She decided that she'd had enough adventure for one night and went to bed with her book. She hadn’t closed the curtains yet, but ended up so engrossed in her book that she never noticed a bat at her window, looking at her from small, black eyes.

‘It’s barbaric.’ Matt uttered, shaking his head.

‘It’s fun! They don’t feel anything.’ David replied with a shrug, stirring his tea.

‘Yeah, maybe not when you do it, but we all know there’s some that enjoy torturing the poor humans in the process.’ Matt argued back.

Loki had just walked into the teacher’s lounge in the morning and couldn’t help but overhear their bickering.

‘Well, I wonder what it could be you’re talking about.’ He grumbled, making himself a cup of tea.

‘In our defence, it was mostly humans that wanted to end their life that were used last night…’ Jessica chimed in with.

‘Mostly is the word that’s the problem there.’ Loki huffed. ‘I read online there’s six humans that mysteriously went missing yesterday.’

The others went a little quiet. Then Severus, who usually keeps to himself, spoke up. ‘Still, less people were killed than in previous years. That number is going down, if only a little.’

‘Hey, how come you weren’t there? It’s not like you to miss out on the yearly hunt.’ David asked.

Severus’ eyes twinkled a little. ‘I was… otherwise engaged.’

‘Yeah, getting it on with his new girl.’ Jessica smirked.

‘Right, I forgot a human has got you wrapped around her little finger now.’ David laughed.

‘At least I have someone that loves me for me.’ Severus countered.

‘Don’t tell me she’s turning you soft, old man!’ Hannibal teased.

‘There’s nothing wrong with loving a human.’ Loki snapped.

‘I never said there was.’ Hannibal said in defence.

‘Well, Severus is right. At least things are still going in the right direction, it’s less numbers than previous years. Your father’s ways are really starting to get out there more.’ David tried, hoping to calm Loki down a little.

‘I guess so. I just agree with Matt. Hunting terrified humans just to drink for fun is disgusting. Especially when we have access to the blood bank whenever we need.’ Loki stated.

‘Plus, with all the bars we have deals with. There’s just no need to be hunting to kill and terrify anymore.’ Matt agreed.

Loki nodded. ‘Exactly. Even if most of the prey are willing to be there, there’s still no need for it. It needs to end. It’s a ridiculous tradition.’

‘Well, I made sure none of them felt any pain. It’s an old yearly tradition, but at least it’s less barbaric than it used to be. And I’m sure in the next few years it will be only the willing humans there.’ David shrugged.

‘Not with Chris still running it, it won’t be.’ Loki growled.

‘What won’t be?’ Came Chris’ voice as he entered the room.

‘We were speaking about the yearly hunt. That each year there’s less and less unwilling humans there.’ Hannibal said.

Loki stiffened and focused on drinking his tea, angry eyes not leaving the cup in front of him.

Chris smirked as he stalked across the room to the kettle. ‘Indeed, they are getting less… which is a shame, as it’s nowhere near as fun when they’re there of their own accord.’

Loki and Matt both bit their tongues to keep quiet. They knew there was no point fighting with him, they wouldn’t win anyway. No one could win a physical fight against Chris. Being one of the original five vampires, he was one of the most powerful vampires in the world even. There was only two of them left.

‘But we do need to keep the peace with the humans.’ Jessica said calmly.

‘True.’ Chris nodded. ‘However, that’s why having the hunt when we do is ideal. Everyone just thinks that people have ran away or killed themselves after spending the depressing holiday season on their own.’ Chris said calmly as he turned to face everyone with a grin.

‘Didn’t you enjoy yourselves?’ Chris then asked, looking at David, Jessica and Hannibal.

‘Of course, we did. It’s always fun, even with the willing humans. It brings us back to our carnal nature after all. Let’s us live out our little fantasy every year.’ Jessica said with a smile.

‘Well then. The vampires are happy, the humans that went there willingly are happily at peace, and the few I picked off because they were lonely, well… I am sure they are happier wherever they are now.’ Chris gave Jessica a charming smile.

Loki struggled to remain calm, his jaw clenched and his free hand balled into a fist. He tried his best not to crush his cup.

Everyone went silent when they heard the only two human teachers making their way down the corridor towards the room.

Redbridge secondary school was run by vampires, and most of the teachers were vampires too, with just two human teachers. The pupils were 60% vampires but only a few of the human pupils knew about their existence, mostly if they were best friends with a vampire or dating one.

As the school’s headmaster, Chris was almost in total control of the place. However, the school also had a set council of vampires that had the ultimate say in big decisions. The school had been set up by Loki’s father, Lucius. The income they received from family’s that sent their kids there could go into the blood bank at the hospital down the road.

The hospital was founded and ran by Lucius too, and the blood bank was for vampires to have a way of getting their feed without actually having to drink from humans. The humans got paid for their blood donations, of course thinking it went to fellow humans in need. Which part of it did, because Lucius did run a proper hospital too, bustling with humans working there, glad they had a well-paying job.

For the last one hundred years, Lucius has had a vision of humans and vampires being able to co-exist together, with the humans mostly being unaware of the vampire’s existence. It had been a hard battle getting vampires to change their old ways, but with more vampire hunters entering the scene, the vampires realised that they couldn’t keep feeding off of human’s as they pleased without consequence. There was one vampire hunter in particular who had proven to fight the especially cruel and unrelenting vampires with the same, if not more cruelty. In the end, most of them realised that Lucius’ way was the right way, especially if they wanted to stay alive.

Some bars had policies for vampires, they would send the drunk humans out the back where vampires could take their fill from them. Providing they didn’t kill them. So when the human woke up, whatever they would remember from the encounter just seemed like a lucid dream.

While there were still lots of vampires that enjoyed feeding from humans in one way or another, there was a few that not only enjoyed feeding from them, but enjoyed torturing them too, not fearing the consequences or the hunters. Vampires could release endorphins while they were feeding, resulting in the humans to feel drowsy and happy, but some vampires choose not to. They loved hearing the cries of terror and pain while they were drinking from their prey far too much. Often, they would not stop after the human passed out, they would suck the human dry.

And Chris happened to be one of those vampires.

The human teachers Michael and Jeremy entered the lounge and happily greeted everyone. The vampires all put on smiles and everyone shared what they got up to over the holidays. Well, the human friendly parts, at least.

Loki was still uncomfortable about being in the same room as Chris, especially after what had happened last night. So he left the room as soon as he could.

‘I’m away to get my lessons planned for the day.’ He hastily said to everyone.

‘Oh Loki, before you go...’ Chris called to him, making him stop but Loki didn’t turn to face Chris. ‘You’ve got a new assistant joining you today. She’s just passed her teaching exams from across the country and is going to be joining us for a couple of years.’

Loki turned and looked at Chris with an eyebrow up. ‘You didn’t think to tell me before now?’

Chris hid a smirk behind his tea as he took a sip. ‘I didn’t know about it until this morning when I came in. It’s not a problem, is it?’

Loki kept his cool and shook his head. ‘No, not at all… I could do with the assistance actually.’

‘Good. She’ll be in your classroom, waiting.’

‘She? Finally, another woman in the mix.’ Jessica cheered.

Loki turned around and continued on out of the room with his jaw clenched. He was pissed that he was only being told now. He thought it would no doubt be another vampire, if Chris had something to do with it. Loki only hoped she wasn’t old school type with her feeding. Or they would end up not getting along well at all.

As he opened the door to his classroom, the most intoxicating, mouth-watering smell, instantly hit him like a ton of bricks.

‘Oh, hi! You must be Mr Laufeyson. I’m Claire, Claire Mason.’ A young woman said brightly as she walked up to him with her hand outstretched towards him.

Oh no. She was no vampire… This was going to be much, much, worse than he had thought.

#tom hiddleston #loki #loki x ofc #vampire Loki #loki fic #David Tennant #Jessica Chastain #Chris Motionless #Severus Snape #Matt Murdock #Michael Fassbender #Jeremy Renner #Hannibal #the redbridge hunts

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