Standing in the parking lot, Christine's first thought was to just go home. But that clearly wasn't going to work - she lived with a roommate who was definitely going to freak out if a stranger came and invited herself in. And then freak out even more when the stranger turned out to be a leopard wearing a human suit. Plus, Christine had no idea what had happened to her keys in all of this (were they trapped in the same incorporeal realm as the rest of her human form?). No, if she was going to get any privacy while she tried to figure this magic stuff out, she was going to have to go to Bronwyn's place. Apparently the girl had managed to bring a mascot suit home without anyone caring, so she probably didn't have a roommate of her own. And after all, for as long as she was in this body, it would be her place.
But Christine had no idea where that was. She felt totally lost for just a moment before an idea struck her. She reached into a back pocket and pulled out a smartphone. She couldn't help but notice her reflection in the darkened screen - she hadn't gotten a good look at Bronwyn until now. She studied her new features in the dim and smudgy impromptu mirror, disoriented by her completely different face. At least she still looked feminine - Christine had never imagined she'd have to worry about things like "passing" or "gender dysphoria", but those words were running through her mind right now.
Having Bronwyn's face was helpful in a much more immediate way, though. The moment Christine snapped out of her self-examination and clicked the phone's power button, it dutifully recognized its owner and let her in. She opened the maps app and - there, perfect! "Home" was a suggested location, an apartment complex about seven miles away from the zoo. The relief of knowing where she was going lasted right up until she took a second glance at that distance. Was she really going to have to walk all that way?
Thankfully, no. Patting down Bronwyn's other pockets quickly revealed a bus pass. And so Christine soon found herself seated on a city bus, trying to assure herself that none of the other people were looking at her. She just felt so vulnerable around all these strangers, which wasn't something Christine had ever felt before. She started to wonder whether the sharp anxiety whispering "you're pretending to be someone you're not, and people can tell" was something Bronwyn felt all the time that was now leaking into her own mind. Then Christine remembered she actually was pretending to be someone she's not. She squirmed in her seat, trying to make sure the zipper stuck to her back wasn't visible to anybody - but also make sure that it wouldn't get caught on something and leave her as a leopard again on the bus. It was a relief when she finally got to Bronwyn's stop.
Glad to have put that nerve-wracking journey behind her, Christine strode confidently into the apartment building - only to realize she had no idea which one of these apartments Bronwyn lived in. She nearly cursed out loud - getting this far only to be stumped on the final hurdle was frustrating, to say the least. She fished out Bronwyn's keys and stared at them for a moment. She couldn't just try every door in the hallway until one of them opened, could she? No, that would attract way too much attention, and that was the last thing Christine wanted right now.
Crouching on the carpeted floor of the hallway, Christine was seriously tempted to just let herself out and let the real Bronwyn handle everything from here. It could work - there was nobody in view right this second. But she really didn't want to risk the possibility of getting Animal Control called on her, and (perhaps) ending right back up in the zoo again. No, there had to be a better way.
She went back to looking through Bronwyn's phone. On a hunch, she opened up the girl's email and did a search for the address she'd just ridden to. Bingo. There were tons of delivery confirmations, and it was hard not to get distracted by looking at the items the girl had received. A bunch of posters with pictures of sexy animal-girls on them. (Christine didn't stop to question why she thought of them as "sexy".) A life-size body pillow. A big plush shark, for some reason. The important thing was, they all had instructions to the delivery person, to bring the package up to Apt. 203.
Christine had a delivery to make, too. She ran up the creaking, narrow stairs of the old building and wasted no time finding the right door. And now she had an idea of what Bronwyn's apartment would look like when she let herself inside. As Christine turned the key in the lock, she hoped the place wouldn't smell too bad - she had never had a very high opinion of nerdy types like this. But as she stepped through the doorway and detected nothing unusual, she realized that she had Bronwyn's nose now, which would be desensitized to any unique scents anyway.
As she surveyed the small, one-bedroom apartment, Christine found it strange to think that she'd actually been brought here before, her unconscious body dragged back here so that Bronwyn could have her "fun". Christine really didn't want to know what that meant. But now Bronwyn was the lifeless one who wouldn't remember a thing, and Christine was in control... for now. She was hesitant to surrender that power to someone she could hardly say she trusted. But having fulfilled her end of the bargain, it seemed her brief time as Bronwyn was up. Unless she decided to wait a little bit longer... after all, who would notice?