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A/N: I haven't written a lot of Vampire Diaries, but I've been inspired recently. The title is the German word for "blood bank."
But you've got blood on your hands
And I know it's mine
I just need more time
- "Unfinished Business" by Mumford & Sons
Elena cleans the blood off her hands for what seems like the millionth time and sighs at the red liquid, the most literal symbol of life. It circles down the drain and she almost breaks down right there. It's always blood. Blood started this mess. Blood will (most likely) end this mess. And it swirls, her life swirls, around and around down the drain. How symbolic is that?
She knows how to get blood off every surface of her house. That's her life now. Make sure it's fresh, and dab club soda on it. If that doesn't work, she knows tricks to get it from every part of her life. Soak a blood stained shirt in cold salt water, then wash it in cold water with detergent. Ammonia gets it out of the carpet, hydrogen peroxide gets it out of a mattress. Remember to dab!
She renews her efforts to get it off her hands with double the vigor. Out damned spot floats unwarranted into her mind. When she was a sophomore, they read Macbeth in English class and the teacher made them do soliloquizes in class. Elena, Caroline and Bonnie dressed up as the three witches and giggled their way through a monologue. Now she realizes doing a Lady Macbeth monologue would have been much more appropriate.
The blood is almost off now, but it stains the undersides of her fingernails. That will be gone after the long, hot shower she'll enjoy after this. It's like clockwork: her house gets covered in blood, she cleans it up, she takes a shower. Lather, rinse, repeat
The blood might as well permanently stain her hands. She is Lady Macbeth now, orchestrating the deaths of her loved ones. Try as she might – as everyone might – to convince her otherwise, she knows that she is the reason for all the death. The blood in her hands, in her house, in her veins is just a constant reminder of this.
In her deepest and most haunted thoughts, she resents Stefan for bringing her into all of this. Just a little bit. Sometimes, when she gets in to the shower and watches the linger remnants of the carnage in her house (her life), she wishes Stefan hadn't saved her. Maybe if he had saved her father, or had just left their car to sink. Jeremey wouldn't have two dead girlfriends, Jenna would be alive, Klaus wouldn't have an army.
That's when she gets out of the shower. Her hands are pruny and her skin is a little dry, not at all perfect. That's when she's thankful to be alive. To be given this second chance to live. She wants to live. She likes having little raisin toes and having to put moisturizer on after her acne face cream. She enjoys having imperfections. They make her human. They remind her why she fights for everyone around her to live as well. She cherishes her friends more than ever.
So maybe she isn't Lady Macbeth. Whens he's done with her self-pitying cycle, she's back to being her fierce self and knows what she has to do. But seriously, she can't deny that her life may or may not be a Shakespearean tragedy.
End.