In terms of relationships, this is where it gets a little complicated. At the beginning of the show, Xander fell instantly in love with Buffy (she is beautiful, after all). But at the time, Xander and Willow were best friends, and Willow had a sizable crush on the X-man. So there was this love triangle deal going, and the fact that Buffy had no interest in Xander made it one big unrequited love angst-fest.

Cordelia was one of the 'popular' girls, and treated Buffy, Willow, and Xander like little bugs that you want to squash as soon as you see them. Needless to say, there was some serious animosity between Cordelia and the others, but through bad luck and circumstance, she discovered Buffy's secret. This became a major source of frustration for everybody, especially when Cordy was trapped in a basement with Xander, and their intense dislike for each other created some sort of twisted bond, resulting in a steamy kiss and a topsy-turvy relationship.

The Cordelia/Xander dynamic really hurt Willow, who said to Xander, 'You'd rather be with someone you hate than be with me.' Luckily for Willow, she and Oz started going out, so her heart has been mended quite handily. That doesn't mean that there isn't some leftover feelings between Xander and Willow, though...

As for Buffy, she was being helped from time to time by this mysterious, shadowy man named Angel, who turned out to be a vampire, but a good one (thanks to a gypsy curse). Over the course of the series, Buffy and Angel fell in love, they had sex (which nullified the curse, thus making Angel an evil vampire again), they fought, Angel killed a couple of her friends... your typical high school relationship.

In the second season's finale, to prevent a great evil from taking over the world, Buffy had to destroy Angel - in effect, sending him straight to hell, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars. The catch was, Willow had found a way to restore the gypsy curse to make Angel a good guy again. She changed Angel just as Buffy was poised to send him to hell. She then had a choice: send him to hell, or spend whatever time they had left together before the world went to hell.

Buffy made the right choice.

However, during the events that led up to this climax, another one of Buffy's friends was killed, Willow ended up in the hospital, Giles was kidnapped, Xander had a broken arm, Buffy was expelled from school, and Buffy's mother finally found out the truth about her daughter, which provoked a fight that ended with the statement, "Get out of my house and never come back!" (Or something to that effect)

So, add that to Buffy killing the man she once loved to save the world, and it was a hectic day.

Faced with all this, faced with all of her responsibilities, all of her mistakes, all of her life coming apart at the seams, Buffy hopped on a bus and headed out of Sunnydale for parts unknown.

The story 'The Demons Within' takes place right before the second season's finale. The upcoming stories, a seven-story arc called 'Buffy's Lost Summer', takes place after the second season's finale. I wrote 'The Demons Within' as a test for myself: could I write a Buffy story well enough to justify writing seven more?

It's up to you to decide if my decision was the right one.

Now that the fourth season has started (and I'm still not done my story arc - what's with that?), the characters have taken a few turns here and there that are not reflected in my stories. I want to make clear that any character revelations that I make in the stories were not influenced by this past season, but had been planned beforehand.

At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)