Elf on the shelf came alive or ghost? 🤔😂😬

Ok so this happened earlier today and it's funny/creepy/weird. My son was at his Dad's all weekend so my husband put the elf on the shelf high up where my son won't find him until we put him out again tomorrow morning. My son is 9 by the way and still loves the elf but he always says he knows he isn't real even though we pretend it is. So my son got home and he started searching for the elf. After 5 minutes I told him the elf was probably hiding because I knew he wouldn't find him so I didn't want him looking forever. A few minutes after I said that I was sitting in the living room and my son was in the hallway maybe 20 feet away from me. Clear as day I hear a little girl say "Psst! Hey over there!" And right after I heard it my son sprinted over to me scared shitless because he heard the same thing. He repeated exactly what I had just heard and he got scared thinking the damn elf said it from wherever he was "hiding" at. I lied and told him it was probably the cat or dog making a noise that sounded like words even though I know what I heard. My husband was napping, tv and tablet were off, and it didn't come from outside it 100% came from the hallway area. The funny (freaky?) part is the elf was in the hallway on the top shelf where I keep things I don't want my kid finding (it's way too high for him to reach). And before someone suggests a gas leak or something what are the odds my son and I hallucinated and heard the same exact thing? He repeated what I had heard without me saying out loud what I had heard. And it was 100% not his voice. Plus if you saw him he had pure terror in his eyes from thinking the elf spoke to him. So idk what happened but it's creeping me out/making me laugh at the same time 😂.