Rip Cooper perceives ghosts with his five senses as if they were flesh
and blood people, and he's just as solid to them -- the only solid
thing to them.
Ghosts in this world are neither pure evil nor pure good. When good
people die, they go straight to Heaven. When bad people die, they go
straight to Hell. Many people fall somewhere in the middle, and they
linger around the Earth as invisible, intangible, inaudible spirits,
isolated from everyone and everything.
Each one has a choice to make. They can use their empathic abilities
to assist the living and hope that will earn them a shot at Heaven
someday -- though none know for a fact there even is such a place. Or,
ghosts can succumb to their misery and haunt people by creating
hallucinations, amplifying uncomfortable emotions, moving small
objects, and generally playing mind games.
When ghosts choose the latter course, Rip has to expedite their
journey down under. How? Basically, he has to beat them to a pulp. The
problem is, the ghosts can fight him back in a way they can't fight
normal people.
Rip works alongside Serissa, a lively dead young woman who's slowly
going bonkers as she tries to do the right thing, because there's not
much to hold onto when you're an intangible ghost and have no
guarantee the rewards are even worth the effort. But she's trying.
RIP: Touch is the first in a series of novelettes that will tell one
larger coming-of-age and redemption story.