She'd been fully home, after a day of travel for only a few days now. She'd only managed to stay at the house for one night before it became something she knew she couldn't handle and so after a lengthy discussion with Alvin and his help, she'd been able to relocate herself to the bunks at the zoo. Nobody had used them in a while, but they had a cozy little outbuilding for when Mr. Podmore's foreign magizoologist friends came and needed a place to stay. It was fine. Perfect, even. She was the only one there, it was quiet, she was alone with her thoughts (and Bram of course). She could take in the zoo at night and nobody had bothered her.

Of course it helped that she'd gone back to sporting the blonde hair of Sadie instead of her natural brown. Anything she could do to avoid anyone really knowing she was home.

She spent her time back in her usual habits and jobs; walking Stephen, reading with Bertram, helping in the aviary. It was the latter she was doing now, the two of them nestled in his enclosure, Sloane tucked into his fuzzy side comfortably as they read some Edgar Allen Poe story about a heart. It wasn't usually what Sloane liked to read, but it unironically fit the mood she was in and Bertram was loving it.

They'd finished a few chapters and Sloane didn't realize she was visible from the outside of Bertram's enclosure when she heard a gentle knock on the glass. It startled her enough for her to look over her arachnid pillow to find one of the last people she expected to see and the person she'd been purposefully avoiding. Seeing Lester on the other side of the glass had her heartrate soaring in anxiety and she had to wonder if there was any graceful way to escape this encounter she desperately didn't want to have.