The last thing Leo saw before the monitor went black was a single, low-res feather drifting slowly down the inside of the glass screen. He didn't look behind him when the window latch finally clicked open.
Leo clicked the link. The file was tiny—just a few kilobytes. He dragged it into his emulator, and the screen flashed a garbled mess of neon purple and lime green before settling into a pixelated city park. The music was a haunting, low-bit loop of a flute that sounded slightly out of tune. 8bit-pigeon-hunter-free-download
Leo froze. He hadn't entered his name anywhere. He tried to exit the program, but his keyboard was unresponsive. Outside his real-world window, a soft fluttering sound started. One pigeon, then ten, then dozens landed on his windowsill, their shadows stretching long across his carpet in the moonlight. The last thing Leo saw before the monitor