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It was nice to be able to think for himself again, Emil thought.
No more extra voices, at all. He could still hear the trolls that Lalli called ‘dusklings’ clamouring outside the door of the toilet he’d barricaded them into, but at least they were no longer leaning on him from inside his head.
Lalli was also gone from his head. He was still unconscious, laying on the floor. It was weird having him in his head, but at least they could talk a bit. How that happened, Emil did not know.
It occurred to him that he’d never know.
Against all odds, Lalli had woken up! Woozy and sick but alive, even if ...only for a few more minutes. Lalli couldn’t understand Emil anymore, but Emil got the message when Lalli motioned to go out the window. It was a dreadful drop to the ground, and Emil was sure that the thump of his landing would alert the trolls.
Neither one of them was in any condition to do any amount of running, but screaming dusklings hot on their trail provided extra motivation! They took each other's hand for strength and ran for cover, to the village.
At sunset.
They were completely defenceless! But Lalli was awake and running with him, for as long as the both of them could, before they inevitably collapsed and were overwhelmed, anyway.
Emil willed his feet onward. Lalli must have decided to try and distract the trolls, throwing some of Emil’s explosives into some building they passed. Too bad it didn’t work.
Lalli dove into… a rubbish bin? That wouldn’t protect them! Emil had no intention of dying in a stinking trash can! He'd die like a...
Lalli gestured frantically. The trolls were almost upon them. Emil chose living a few minutes more.
Packed into the rubbish bin, desperately holding on literally for dear life against the dusklings, Emil wished they would shut up about their food – them – being trapped.
Then, they did.
The horrible crunching that replaced their screams subsided. Finally all Emil could hear was the thudding of his own heart. Lall’s enormous eyes were turned toward him in the dark.
They both stank horribly, had no food or water, but somehow had managed to not die after all. Emil watched Lalli’s eyes close. Just before sleep overcame him, too, he had a thought:
Why hadn’t he thought to use explosives?
Butterflies, and ducks, and beautiful non-trollified creatures drifted past Emil’s vision. All was quiet, and so peaceful.
At least, peaceful until Lalli scolded him to keep watch. They were still holding on the lid of the can they were hiding in. There was not enough room in the can for both of their bodies, and butterflies? He could understand Lalli again. Emil deduced that it had to be a dream.
And if it was a dream, didn’t he deserve to be asleep? As happy as he was to see Lalli alive, wasn’t it his turn to keep awake?
Apparently not.