to a strange realm opens up in her closet
Thinking about your plot, I"d suggest brainstorming on some. other form of Where does the Strange Realm emerge from.
I can think of several books and movies, where the closet is what harbors mystery or entrance into some other world, etc.
For fun, I was thinking, well, how else might horror, enter into the bedroom or lounge area of the ME victim?
Perhaps it's the shower. We don't like showers. Maybe it's under the bed. Under the floor boards. Behind the light switches.
There was this movie I got really into it for a while, when I was considering moving to this other place. Which now I have done.
In that film, there are simply menacing drops of water. The drops of water are sliding down the wall. From the ceiling. The drops of water are not of this world. Etc Etc it was really scary.
And imagine what you could work up in terms of how the ME victim, is in fact heroic. Or clever or overcomes something, despite their limitations.