diff --git a/css.c b/css.c
index 47800d0..fd9ede9 100644
--- a/css.c
+++ b/css.c
@@ -54,15 +54,13 @@ mkd_css(Document *d, char **res)
 	stylesheets(d->code, &f);
 			
 	if ( (size = S(f)) > 0 ) {
+	    /* null-terminate, then strdup() into a free()able memory
+	     * chunk
+	     */
 	    EXPAND(f) = 0;
-			/* HACK ALERT! HACK ALERT! HACK ALERT! */
-	    *res = T(f);/* we know that a T(Cstring) is a character pointer */
-			/* so we can simply pick it up and carry it away, */
-			/* leaving the husk of the Ctring on the stack */
-			/* END HACK ALERT */
+	    *res = strdup(T(f));
 	}
-	else
-	    DELETE(f);
+	DELETE(f);
 	return size;
     }
     return EOF;
diff --git a/xml.c b/xml.c
index da48ec8..f71b05c 100644
--- a/xml.c
+++ b/xml.c
@@ -74,9 +74,10 @@ mkd_xml(char *p, int size, char **res)
 	else
 	    Csputc(c, &f);
     }
-			/* HACK ALERT! HACK ALERT! HACK ALERT! */
-    *res = T(f);	/* we know that a T(Cstring) is a character pointer */
-			/* so we can simply pick it up and carry it away, */
-    return S(f);	/* leaving the husk of the Ctring on the stack */
-			/* END HACK ALERT */
+    /* null terminate, strdup() into a free()able memory block,
+     * and return the size of everything except the null terminator
+     */
+    EXPAND(f) = 0;
+    *res = strdup(T(f));
+    return S(f)-1;
 }