Pasunod

Ancient University dormitories are interesting places. With communal spaces for studying, laundry, and bathing, a dormer learns the ways to live around different kinds of people. In particular, the bathroom does not ensure total privacy with its rows of shower and toilet cubicles. Each shower room has tall doors raised until below your knees so it allows one to see if there is someone using the cubicle while still preventing indecent peeking.

Due to the shared spaces, residents would often create a system among themselves to be more organized and have order in its usage. To queue for the women's shower, students have to hang their towels over the high aluminum door. In this way, they can reserve their turn without the need to stay and crowd the bathroom. If they want, they could inquire from the person inside how much longer they're going to take in there so they can decide when to come back. But for most, simply saying the word, "pasunod" meaning, "I'm next" was already enough to inform the person showering that someone was waiting on them.

Everyone who lived in that dormitory knew of this custom.

It was a quiet midweek morning that day. A female student was showering leisurely in one of the shower cubicles. It was rather early, the sun had barely risen so she was sure she could take her time. While shampooing her hair she heard a soft, "pasunod" from outside her door. She didn't think too much of it and just let the person hang their towel and go. It wasn't that long before the same voice said again, "pasunod" and this time she had to answer, "Wait lang".

Once more, the same person said, "pasunod. pasunod" but this time she started knocking on the door. The girl showering inside was almost done but the other's impatience and rudeness annoyed her so she screamed, "I said wait!"

The knocking still did not stop and it was making the girl inside angry and quite anxious. She looked below the door so that if this girl ran away when she came out, she could remember the girl's slipper and eventually report her.

Although the banging was still going on, the girl inside the shower did not see the slippers of the girl outside. In fact, the girl's feet were not even there.

The back of her neck felt cold.

Then, a grating sound against the aluminum door of the shower room called the attention and the eyes of the girl to look upward. Up the tall door that no average student could reach. There among the towels that draped over the door, was long black hair hanging down from a pale-faced girl.

Red were the eyes that stared at her.

Bloodshot. Unblinking.

And her decayed nails dug deep into the fabric as she gripped tight.

Her cracked lips opened slowly, and in a faint voice, she said, one more time.

"Pasunod."