"A long, long time ago, there was a small village. The people lived happily, with nothing to fear but one thing. In a house on the outer bits of the village lived a strange old woman. The villagers called her many things-- a witch, a ghost, it didn't matter. They all thought her evil. It was rumored that she had been cursed from a love she could never have.
"Of course, after some time the woman died, and the villagers grew old and had children and told them stories of the witch who used to live there. Then one day a couple from the city moved to the village and said they wanted to live in that house.
"The villagers warned the couple, but the city folks didn't care about ghosts. The house was the right size, with a large yard filled with bamboo. Once they cleared the yard, they could start their very own garden.
"And so they moved in. They cleaned the house and decorated it, until they were fairly comfortable. Then they went to sleep. The first night wasn't too bad. The couple slept soundly. But during the second night the young woman woke to strange lights outside her window. She muttered something about neighbors partying, then went back to sleep once again.
"But the lights continued all through the year. The couple started to grown irritated, then nervous, then a little bit frightened. Finally the spring came and they decided to start their garden.
"They hired all the willing villagers (not a great number) to help them dig up the bamboo. Before they even started digging, they discovered something strange. At first glance, the bamboo looked normal. But if you looked closer, you could see it was planted in patches, and bamboo never grew in patches. They thought this was strange, alright. But then they started finding the bodies.
"Under each patch of bamboo, they found a skeleton. They weren't just normal, every-day-dead-person-body skeletons. The skeletons were all placed the same way. Their body facing upward, with the skull twisted brutally backward, face-down in the dirt.
"They found over over fifty skeletons. When the couple went to sleep at night, they sweated and fidgeted, hearing strange noises and seeing lights rise from the bamboo patches. The couple noticed that the patches which they had already dug the bodies out of had no such lights.
"Villagers warned them, 'those are spirits. Move. Get out of that house.'
"And you think the couple ignored them this time? After seeing so many of the empty, lifeless skeleton eyes? No-way-José. They were out of there!
"Not every patch had been dug up. People still wander over to the house, find a little bamboo sprout, and pull at it. They'll find a skeleton with its head twisted underneath."
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