Harriet has lived in Humboldt for the better part of 20 years.
"I was never really a believer in ghosts or anything like that, no," she said.
"I mean, I'm not staunchly opposed to believing in them, but I just didn't really give it that much thought."
Before Harriet moved to Humboldt in the early '90s, she grew up in Kingston, Ont., a historic city home to the maximum security prison Kingston Penitentiary, one of the oldest prisons still in use at the time of its closure this past September. It also hosts a haunted walk every year and is known for its tales of ghosts and spirits haunting its streets and decades-old buildings.
Harriet and her family resided in a large, ornate manor, a former funeral home.
Haunted?
"Maybe," she chuckled. "Sometimes weird things would happen but I never really connected it with ghosts or anything. But ever since I saw that.thingin Humboldt, I'm starting to reconsider other strange, unexplainable things that have happened to me."
She's talking about the Humboldt goblin.
Goblin?
"Yes," she laughed. "I know, I know. It sounds completely ridiculous, trust me. But I don't know how else to describe it, I guess. It was definitely a creature, not a person. So I just call it a goblin because I don't know what it was."
It was back earlier this summer. A clear night with a heavy heat, Harriet was out walking her dog, Lynnie.
"I live out near the old water tower, so I always walk Lynnie in the fields near the railway tracks," she explained.
Lynnie is a senior dog, a mongrel of some sort, whitening around the nose and mouth.
"She's pretty calm nowadays. I hardly ever hear her bark or whine anymore," Harriet said.
"She's in her golden years."
But Lynnie saw something peculiar that warm night in early July.
She saw it even before Harriet did.
"We were walking alongside the tracks -I wasn't really paying attention- and I noticed that Lynnie had suddenly stopped in her tracks. She was staring straight ahead, fixated on something."
Harriet looked up.
There, through the still, dry grass, about a football field away, was a mysterious, small dark creature walking, slowly ("almost creeping") along the road.
Lynnie started whimpering.
"I've never seen her do that. Even when she was a puppy and we'd see squirrels and things, she never got excited by them. But this just scared her," Harriet said.
Harriet started pulling on Lynnie's leash. She wouldn't budge.
"She just kept staring at it and whimpering. Knowing that she was also seeing it was really scary because I knew it wasn't just my imagination."
The hair on the back of her neck started to stand up, her heart beating a little faster.
"I actually got really scared," Harriet said. "I was looking around and realizing I was alone. Everything was just so quiet. No one else was out, it seemed like every house was dark. I just felt really alone."
"I've never felt like that."
She kept tugging and tugging on Lynnie's leash, finally getting the old broad to move.
They kept walking.
"We were walking sort of towards it but veering off to the left down a side street," Harriet said. "So if it kept walking, it'd be parallel to us on the other side of the field."
"I've never walked that fast in my life," she said.
Harriet moved her feet as fast as she could.
"I would've started running but Lynnie wouldn't be able to keep up."
The dog kept stopping and turning around to stare at the creature.
Every time she stopped, Harriet would turn around to catch a glimpse of it as well, before yanking on Lynnie's leash to get her moving.
"When I'd look at it, it seemed like it was coming closer and closer towards us."
Then something strange happened.
Harriet turned around.
The shape -creature, goblin- was cutting across the field toward them.
"You know how in nightmares, when you're running from something, your legs are hardly moving? They're just jelly? That's how I felt. I felt like no matter how fast I walked, this thing would catch up to me," Harriet said.
She started moving into a light jog, pulling Lynnie with her.
"She was still whimpering. She saw what I saw."
They made it onto a well-lit street in their neighbourhood, feeling a little safer.
That is until she turned around.
It was still following them; that's when Harriet noticed it wasn't a person or a dog.
"I know this sounds so crazy but it wasn't anything I've ever seen before. It wasn't a sasquatch or anything like that (she laughs). It was just a small, strange, gnarled thing," Harriet said.
"A goblin or a ghoulish critter of some sort."
Almost in tears ("It was absolutely frightening"), Harriet rushed home, moving her feet as fast as she could down the street. With every pace, she felt the creature was getting closer and closer behind her, creeping up on her slowly.
She didn't look back.
"I couldn't. I was so scared I'd turn around and it'd be standing right behind me."
She and Lynnie finally made it home.
Her husband, Doug, was watching TV.
"I got inside and started crying," Harriet said. "I've never felt that panicked before. My heart was just pounding."
Doug sprang up from the couch, thinking something awful had happened.
"I told him what I thought I saw. He's not judgemental at all, so he just hugged me and told me everything was ok, that it was probably a rabid coyote or smaller animal like that and thank God I was safe."
"But I knew it wasn't. I know what I saw."
So did Lynnie, who crawled under their kitchen table, remaining there for two whole days.
"She didn't want to go for walks, she'd hardly eat.it was like she was completely traumatized."
Lynnie eventually recuperated and the nightly walks have resumed, with one difference.
"We walk a different route now," Harriet laughed. "No dark paths, no fields. Just brightly lit streets."
"But I still check behind my shoulder every now and then."
Happy Halloween.
