exaggeration of things like that can be really good to get your point across. especially for people reading on release that haven't necessarily looked at the precious spacing in a couple days.
I still don't think you exaggerated it nearly enough. think of it like a cartoon, if you want to show her backing away, then have her press against the wall, or all the way down an alley, or maybe some little motion cues like step step step leading backwards. ooh, or you could try the manga thing where they just have like shock lines outlining where they just were.
don't worry about physical logic being grounded, and don't try to by visually subtle. if you have a visual point to make it's usually better to make it almost painfully obvious. slap the reader with it to make sure they get it.