diff --git a/src/Drivers/LaravelHttpServer.php b/src/Drivers/LaravelHttpServer.php
index ffa12a6c..6ecdce76 100644
--- a/src/Drivers/LaravelHttpServer.php
+++ b/src/Drivers/LaravelHttpServer.php
@@ -305,9 +305,22 @@ private function handleRequest(AmpRequest $request): Response
             }
         }
 
+        $headers = $response->headers->all();
+
+        if ($response->isInformational() || $response->isEmpty()) {
+            // Symfony strips Content-Length from 1xx/204/304 responses and amphp
+            // chunk-encodes any HTTP/1.1 response without one, which appends a
+            // terminating chunk to a response that must not carry a body. Browsers
+            // consider such a response complete after the headers, so the stray
+            // bytes corrupt the next request on the same keep-alive connection.
+            unset($headers['transfer-encoding']);
+            $headers['content-length'] = ['0'];
+            $content = '';
+        }
+
         return new Response(
             $response->getStatusCode(),
-            $response->headers->all(), // @phpstan-ignore-line
+            $headers, // @phpstan-ignore-line
             $content,
         );
     }
diff --git a/src/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServer.php b/src/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServer.php
index 1afa6647..fa657876 100644
--- a/src/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServer.php
+++ b/src/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServer.php
@@ -60,7 +60,10 @@ public function start(): void
             return;
         }
 
-        $this->systemProcess = SystemProcess::fromShellCommandline(sprintf(
+        // `exec` makes the shell replace itself with node, so stop() signals the
+        // server itself. Without it, PHP's `sh -c` wrapper receives the signal and
+        // node is re-parented to PID 1 together with the browsers it launched.
+        $this->systemProcess = SystemProcess::fromShellCommandline($this->execPrefix().sprintf(
             $this->command,
             $this->host,
             $this->port,
@@ -94,7 +97,9 @@ public function start(): void
     public function stop(): void
     {
         if ($this->systemProcess instanceof SystemProcess && $this->isRunning()) {
-            $this->systemProcess->stop(timeout: 0.1);
+            // Give node a moment to close its browsers on SIGTERM before Symfony
+            // escalates to SIGKILL; the browsers exit on their own once node is gone.
+            $this->systemProcess->stop(timeout: 2.0);
         }
 
         $this->systemProcess = null;
@@ -164,6 +169,14 @@ private function ensurePlaywrightIsInstalledAndVersionIsSupported(): void
         }
     }
 
+    /**
+     * The shell prefix that hands the process its own PID (POSIX only).
+     */
+    private function execPrefix(): string
+    {
+        return DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR === '/' ? 'exec ' : '';
+    }
+
     /**
      * Checks
      */
diff --git a/tests/Browser/Server/BodylessResponseTest.php b/tests/Browser/Server/BodylessResponseTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..573f8789
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Browser/Server/BodylessResponseTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+use Illuminate\Http\Response;
+use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;
+
+it('serves the next request on a keep-alive connection after a body-less response', function (int $status): void {
+    Route::post('/beacon', fn (): Response => new Response('', $status));
+
+    Route::get('/after-beacon.js', fn (): Response => new Response('window.afterBeaconLoaded = true;', 200, [
+        'Content-Type' => 'text/javascript',
+    ]));
+
+    Route::get('/', fn (): string => <<<'HTML'
+        <html>
+        <body>
+        <script>
+            fetch('/beacon', {method: 'POST', keepalive: true}).then(() => {
+                const script = document.createElement('script');
+                script.src = '/after-beacon.js';
+                script.onerror = () => { window.afterBeaconFailed = true; };
+                document.body.appendChild(script);
+            });
+        </script>
+        </body>
+        </html>
+        HTML);
+
+    visit('/')->assertScript('window.afterBeaconLoaded === true || window.afterBeaconFailed === true');
+
+    visit('/')->assertScript('window.afterBeaconLoaded === true');
+})->with([204, 304])->repeat(3);
diff --git a/tests/Unit/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServerTest.php b/tests/Unit/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServerTest.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..718433ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/Unit/Playwright/Servers/PlaywrightNpmServerTest.php
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+<?php
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+use Pest\Browser\Playwright\Servers\AlreadyStartedPlaywrightServer;
+use Pest\Browser\Playwright\Servers\PlaywrightNpmServer;
+use Pest\Browser\Support\PackageJsonDirectory;
+use Pest\Browser\Support\Port;
+
+it('stops the node process it started instead of leaving it behind', function (): void {
+    $port = Port::find();
+
+    $server = PlaywrightNpmServer::create(
+        PackageJsonDirectory::find(),
+        '.'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'node_modules'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'.bin'.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.'playwright run-server --host %s --port %d --mode launchServer',
+        '127.0.0.1',
+        $port,
+        'Listening on',
+    );
+
+    $server->start();
+
+    try {
+        $pid = (int) new ReflectionProperty($server, 'systemProcess')->getValue($server)->getPid();
+        $commandLine = str_replace("\0", ' ', (string) file_get_contents("/proc/{$pid}/cmdline"));
+
+        expect($commandLine)->toStartWith('node ')
+            ->and($commandLine)->toContain("--port {$port}");
+    } finally {
+        $server->stop();
+        AlreadyStartedPlaywrightServer::markAsStopped();
+    }
+
+    $survivors = [];
+
+    foreach (glob('/proc/[0-9]*', GLOB_NOSORT) ?: [] as $directory) {
+        $candidate = str_replace("\0", ' ', (string) @file_get_contents($directory.'/cmdline'));
+
+        if (str_contains($candidate, "run-server --host 127.0.0.1 --port {$port} ")) {
+            $survivors[] = basename($directory);
+        }
+    }
+
+    expect($survivors)->toBe([]);
+})->skipOnWindows()->skipOnMac();