Page "Gingerbread (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)" Paragraph 10

At the park, Buffy talks with Angel, who convinces her not to give up fighting.

When he makes a passing remark about the children and their parents, Buffy is struck by the thought that the children's parents were never mentioned.

She returns to the library to find Giles, Xander and Oz, where she realizes that none of them know anything at all about the two child victims.

The only fact anyone knows about them is that they were found dead-yet MOO's publicity uses pictures of them alive.

Buffy and the others quickly realise that there is absolutely no information regarding the children's names, their families, or where they lived.

After using the Internet to contact Willow, the Scooby Gang learn that every fifty years throughout history, the murdered bodies of two nameless children have been found dead.

The earliest record dating from Germany during 1649, where a cleric from the Black Forest discovered the corpses of " Hans and Greta Strauss ", inspiring the fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel.

Giles explains that certain demons thrive on watching humans destroy each other through persecution and ignorance.

This demon assumes the form of the murdered boy and girl, and returns every fifty years to persuade a town to kill the " bad girls " – innocents accused as witches, and thus peaceful communities are torn apart through vigilante madness.

According to Giles, this is what set off the Salem Witch Trials.