It was hot, like when too many people spoke and touched him and his skin turned to fire.

Sister was there, a golden sun blowing ugly lines of panic that became his own.

If Little Pete was capable of feeling fear, this was the closest he had ever been.

Outside was darkness but not Darkness, but it was still bad. It wasn't the game, not at all. Pete knew the game, had seen it played, knew how it ended.

This was not his game.

Words that were scratching shapes came from Sister's mouth, tinged with a pitch that shifted more and more as things around him cracked and broke. He was losing the game. It was turning bad.

Black and orange moved towards him in his body's world. In the other world, away from his bad brain, Pete could see the Darkness moving. Curious anticipation.

He lost the thought when he returned to his body.

"Petey. Window seat, window seat." Sister was saying the words to pull the body back from a crisis when the volcano inside him exploded, but Pete wasn't the problem. It was the game.

But as Sister grew louder and louder and louder and threatened to overload him, Pete's body had a rare moment of clarity.

The game was not lost, but this was a bad level. A bad savegame.

It was that moment in Mario when he failed the jump and was falling. It was when he took one attack too many in Pokémon.

There was only one thing for it.

Reload.

Go back.

Try again.

Pete left his body and looked at the Ball.

It was still a game, and that gave him comfort. But unlike before, he could not see the next levels. Only the old levels. That was enough, though. He could mend it with what he had.

The avatars began to dim as the invisible bars above their heads solidified. That was new. He would think about it later when things were less chaotic.

Pete reached out towards the growing burning dark and pulled.

The Darkness tried to retaliate, so it wasn't a clean reload, but the danger was reversing. It was enough.

Angry, he thought, looking at the Darkness writhing in reverse as an avatar with brilliant shades of light and dark snapped one of the tethers linking her to it.

Then, as the clock moved the other way, Different game.