Hiya, I'm so sorry this took so long but I have been revising for my last exam tomorrow (Thank the Lord) and I haven't found the time (or to be honest, the inclination) to write this until recently, but it's done now, and I will continue with it. School starts back again tomorrow and as I said before, I seem to write better in school when I should be working on something else.

Once again I would like to thank my reviewer:

Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet: did I make it that obvious? Well done for figuring it out. If all goes to plan, I should be able to get a picture of him up on the internet soon. Thank you for reviewing and well done on your detective skills, have you considered going into law enforcement ; ) Thank you for the review.

By the way, to anyone who is interested, I have a picture of Ash on my computer that I am trying hard to color in but my computer thinks it is hysterical and refuses to remain on for more than about 20 minutes, at which point I get a B.S.O.D. and the stupid thing has to be unplugged before it will shut down. I will eventually finish coloring it in and post it up; I will put a link up for you if you are interested in seeing what he looks like.

05/06/05:well, I managed to get the stupid computer to behave, there is a picture of Ash here: http/ www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 19110649/ except without the spaces obviously

Thanks for sticking with me on this and giving me your support, it means the world to me.

Again 'Blah' are Ember's thoughts

Chapter 10 - Shopping

Due to her most recent experiences in the ghost zone, Ember didn't feel much like venturing out into the mad world that had been identified to her as the Ghost Zone, so she remained in the home she had been given by Spectra.

She had done some more exploring and found there was a room which seemed to serve as a bathroom with a separate bath and shower, a kitchen and, to her great delight, she found in a drawer in the living room that someone had left a jumbo pad of paper, some pens and pencils, erasers and pencil sharpeners.

It was only when she sat down on the couch to try to write a song that she remembered her guitar was gone. That smug boy with the motorbike had broken it, and he hadn't even apologized. 'I'm going to go off that boy very quickly'.

She had always been a creative and resourceful girl though, so she sat down with the paper and pens and wrote lyrics instead. She fit the music around them in her head as she went, and wrote it down on a separate piece of paper, resolving herself to combine the two on her guitar later 'If that creepy Skulker guy manages to fix it and get it back to me that is'

Not long after she had finished the new song, which took longer than usual in her opinion, her stomach decided that, despite the fact it was dead, it was still empty and wanted to complain. She made a mental note to ask about why she should be hungry when she's dead, and wondered mutely into the kitchen for a more thorough examination of the cupboards and what appeared at first glance to be a fridge.

Seven minutes later she stomped out, cursing under what would have been her breath, and plopped herself back onto the three-seater couch where she had left her new song. For the next hour she wondered around her new flat, exploring, poking in various nooks and crannies and listening to her stomach whine. Eventually the repetitive noise got to be too much for her so she reasoned with herself that if she was going to be in this place for a long time, she may as well get out and explore it.

She checked her pockets and found, to her great surprise, the money she had left in them was still there. 'While I'm out exploring, I might as well try to find some food' she also managed to convince herself.She crossed the now familiar living room to the front door, opened it and looked out. She was glad she had looked out before taking a step because she would have landed with yet another almighty bump if she had. She found that her new flat was now floating a few dozen feet from the ground as opposed to being level with it when she had arrived.

Cautiously she 'stepped' out into the air and closed her door behind her, checking immediately afterwards that it hadn't locked behind her. She floated in mid air for ten minutes after that, studying her door, committing it to memory. When she had finished she turned and studied her, for want of a better term, neighborhood, so she could at least attempt to find her way back here, noting at the same time that there didn't seam to be any transition from day to night here.

Finally, when she felt marginally confident that she could find this place again, she slowly began to fly away from the door, making a mental note of the landscape as she flew over it, committing what she could to memory for the return journey. She flew over many more doors and not a few people, going about what appeared to be their day-to-day business, she became engrossed in watching them, until her grumbling stomach reminded her of her original intentions when she began this flight.

Finally, she spotted what she thought looked to her like a general shop where she might be able to find food, or what passed for it here. She spiraled down close to the ground then landed, still not comfortable enough to just drop out of the sky as she had seen others do, and walked into the relatively large shop. She was immediately confronted with dozens of unfamiliar faces who all seemed to take at least a passing interest in her, then return to their shopping. Tactfully she ignored them, putting it down to the fact that she was new, and therefore, a curiosity to the locals, some of whom may have been here for hundreds of years for all she knew.

She picked up a basket from the front of the shop and proceeded to wonder around the many isles, picking up anything that looked appetizing to her and placing it in the basket. When she had mentally added up the totals and concluded that she had just about spent the money she had found, she walked over to where she thought the checkout would be. She found it in the normal place 'that's about the only relatively normal thing in this place so far' and got in line. She was too busy daydreaming about her 'life' before and after she came to this place to notice what everyone in front of her was doing, so she simply put her purchases on the conveyer belt and bagged them as they wet through the scanner, directed by the hand of the ghost girl sitting behind the register.

When the last item was scanned and bagged, she reached into her pocket for the money and brought it out, waiting to be told the total. When the girl looked round at her to inquire as to why she was still standing there, she glimpsed the money and chuckled before she said

"You can put that away, you won't need it here" she was given a puzzled look from the girl with the jade hair, so she continued with her explanation "here in the Ghost Zone we don't use money because no-one has jobs. We have a computer system that keeps track of what everyone buys and we all have a limit to what we can have, kinda like rations."

The teen nodded as she began to understand so the girl continued with her explanation "Since we don't have money we need a way to track when someone has reached their limit, so instead we have points, everything costs a certain amount of points, and when you have reached the limit for that week, you can't buy anymore"

The jade haired teen continued to nod, before asking, "So what is the limit?"

"500 points a week, if you don't use them all up, they carry over to the next week, but it's all computerized, you can't take any points out in a physical way, the way you could with money. You can only find out how much you have by looking on these machines that work the same way as ATMs do in the living world."

Ember nodded, she had seen one of them on the wall outside before she had come in "So how do I get an account?"

"Oh don't worry about that"

"Why not?" Ember asked curiously and with a little anger. This was the way she had been treated when she was famous, as if she was somehow above society. And she hated it.

"Spectra sorts all of that out when you arrive"

A look of relief passed over the tens face as the girl answered. "So how many points did I just use?"

"Only 25, don't worry you have plenty left" the girl beamed. Ember sighed with relief, pocketed the money she had, picked u her bags and left the shop while throwing a smile over her shoulder for the girl.

When she got outside again she took off and spun in the air in the direction she had originally come from, heading back to her home.

End of Chapter

A/N: I Know, I know, they're dead, why should they have to eat? Well…I thought about that and realized, after Danny used his powers in 'Mystery Meat' he became totally exhausted so that's where the idea for them using up their energy came from. That and I'm a huge Dragonball Z fan and I know that when they use up their energy in battle they are totally cream crackered after it and need to replenish their energy, and the best way is with sleep or food, lots and lots of food. I think that the ghost's and DBZ characters powers come from the same place basically, so that's why they still get hungry.

I assume they eat because, again using an episode for reference, in 'Prisoners of Love' when Danny was in jail, the ghosts were served a meal (did anyone else notice that?) and the riot stared in the dining area shortly after that. I assume if they are given food and a place to eat it, then they probably need it, but it's not to live on, it's to replenish their energy otherwise they would burn out.

I don't think they have money because no-one seems to have jobs (except Walker but he appears to me to do it out of pleasure rather than for money) so therefore, they wouldn't have money. That's why the food is free, since it's a basic necessity but it is rationed and a record of what they buy is kept on computers, that's why things are still scanned. (If that makes any sense)

And I know they have power of some kind because in 'Prisoners of Love' Danny walked into the lair of something that was watching T.V. but I am too tired to try and work that one out, so I will let that one lie

If you have any more questions, comments or little nitpicks you would like to have answered, feel free to leave a review containing them and I will be happy to try and make up an answer for something I may have forgotten about (: P)

May the Angels bless you and keep you safe.

Anawiel