The music cut out entirely. The only sound was a low, rhythmic thumping, like a heartbeat, coming through Leo’s headphones. He ripped them off.

The screen went black. Then, in small, green terminal text:

On the screen, Bart was now walking on his own. Slowly, jerkily, toward the edge of the level. Leo watched as Bart’s sprite reached the far left side of the screen and kept going, past the boundary, into a void of scrolling black and purple lines.

Then the screen glitched.

Leo shoved his chair back from the desk. The monitor flickered. The lights in his apartment dimmed. And from the speakers, very quietly, the Simpsons theme began to play again—but slowed down, distorted, each note stretched into a mournful, mechanical groan.

Then the camera followed.

Leo paused. He rubbed his eyes. “Probably just a bad dump.”

Weird.