Make a running joke develop: each attempt to get rid of a nuisance should inconvenience a different person in a different way.
Make another attempt more frightening by having the danger damage the very ability the character needs to escape it.
Keep several failed attempts interesting by making each fail because of a different person's motives or assumptions.
Let a threatened character infer a deadline from the preparations being made around them.
A liar tries to retire an excuse just as someone else starts using it. The witnesses believe the fiction and make correcting it costly.
Keep a major achievement from ending the story: success creates a need the protagonist never prepared to meet.
Make a negotiation turn on the cost of keeping something, rather than assuming possession guarantees a good deal.
Escalate horror through a character's practical efforts to feel safe, making each new precaution demand more attention.
Let an earned reward cause trouble through a property readers already know it has.
Turn a visitor's curiosity into an urgent need to understand the place they are exploring.
Move a prepared but hesitant character into action by making them reconsider one more round of preparation.