Do Not Look Under the Door When the Voice in the Last Stall Asks for Red Paper
The girls’ bathroom on the first floor of our school’s old building is at the end of the hallway.
You pass the science room, then the old staircase, and there it is. During the day, it is just a bathroom. Students crowd in during break, someone fixes their bangs in front of the mirror, and someone turns the water on too hard and leaves the sink area wet.
But during class or after school, it feels different.
When no one is inside, the water tank gives a late rumble, and drops fall somewhere under the sink. The last stall door is old, so it does not close completely, and the lock does not catch on the first try.
Our school’s Red Paper, Blue Paper rumor starts from that last stall.
They say that if you are inside alone, a voice comes from outside the door.
“Do you want red paper, or blue paper?”
The Red Paper, Blue Paper story resembles the Japanese toilet urban legend known as Aka Manto. In many versions, a spirit appears in a school or public bathroom and asks someone to choose between red and blue paper, or sometimes a red and blue cloak. The details change by region and generation, but the bathroom, the choice, and the trap are usually there.
But our school’s version was less about the co