An ICE agent is haunted by an apparition of a man who died during a raid on a restaurant, driving him further and further into paranoia and madness.
This is a slippery story, starting off with what appears to be a home invasion when the protagonist first encounters the apparition, slowly spiraling into chaos as he becomes more and more unhinged. He seems to be afflicted with the sort of paranoia that is endemic among some Americans, expressed in home security cameras and an ample home arsenal, with flashes of fear and violence, which gradually becomes dangerously unhinged. For a story in “Antifa Splatterpunk” (based on my experience with the first three stories in the collection), this is a surprisingly subtle and even sympathetic exploration of the psychological effects of pathological vigilance and fear.