This is another one from a prompt; the story stands at over 5000 words and is maybe 2/3 done.

The phone call came as Jade was on her way to class. She thought about not answering it – she’d been late already twice this month, and Professor Tannenbaum was getting crankier than normal with her. Long-trained habit made her grab the phone as she danced to get her shoes on. It could, after all, be an emergency, even though it was almost always Taylor with a complaint or Riley with a demand.

“Talk to me,” she greeted whoever-it-was, as she executed a hop-skip maneuver to get her second shoe buckled. Two minutes until she had to be out the door…

“Jade, it’s your mother.” Mom sounded more stressed, more strained, than Jade could ever remember her sounding, at least since… “I’m sorry, it’s time.”

…

“Fee, Fi, Fo, Fum.” The booming voice was louder this time. Closer? Coming her way? There’s always a way through. Holding tight to the straps of her backpack, Jade thought of Professor Tannenbaum choking on a cigarette and walked boldly forward.

“Fee… oh, there you are, little thing.” If the ceiling had still been there, he would have had his head through it, and possibly through the ceiling of the floor above. His legs were like tree trunks, and he only barely fit in the hallway at all; he was standing in the T-intersection with one huge foot facing Jade and the other out of sight. She could have used his shoe as, if not a rowboat, at least a coracle. His thighs, at her eye level, were bare and very hairy, easily as wide around as her waist. And those knees, with wrinkles like a dessert landscape, were coming closer to her as he crouched down.

…

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