I really don’t mind the “this/the” thing that much. I agree the cut after “it” is pretty hard, I’d extend and fade that as much as possible.

The ambience helps, the only thing with that that’s still bothering me is the “Or maybe they do” line, when the audio for that cuts in it’s a little abrupt, I’d fade it in as much as possible (seems like there should be a little bit of space before she actually starts talking).

The other thing too that I noticed is it seems like the dialogue in the deleted scenes might be louder than in the rest of the film, I’d just check the levels on that to make sure it matches.