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    After filming the light for a while longer, they trudged back to their campsite and talked for a while before stamping out the fire and getting into their sleeping bags. Even as she snuggled up into hers, Erin still felt the chill of the night air, and goose bumps prickled over her skin as she rubbed her hands up and down her legs and arms, trying to keep warm.
    The three of them were all sleeping in the one tent; none of them minded sharing. As her eyes closed and her mind drifted off to sleep, she was rudely awoken by Craig prodding her and whispering into her ear.
    “Erin! Wake up! What the hell is that sound?”
    She rubbed her eyes and sat up, and saw Craig crouched over her. Even in the dim light, she could see that his face was pale, and his forehead was lined with concern.
    “What sound?” she mumbled, cocking her head to the side.
    A second later, she heard it, and a chill shot down her spine as adrenaline suddenly surged through her veins, making her heart thump loudly in her chest like the fluttering wings of a trapped bird. A baby or small child was giggling not far in the distance, and her stomach lurched as her eyes met Craig’s panicked gaze again.
    “Oh, shit,” she whispered. “The giggling children the Sheriff mentioned. What the hell could it be?”
    “I don’t know,” he replied before gently prodding Caitlin. “Hey, Caity, wake up… quick.”
    Caitlin sat up, and just as she did, all three of them heard the giggling sound, louder this time. Erin’s heart was beating so fast that she was sure it would explode out of her chest, and a second later Caitlin started to laugh.
    “What’s wrong with you?” Erin hissed. “This isn’t funny.”
    “Yes it is! You should see your faces right now. Oh, man… it’s hilarious,” Caitlin replied. “Listen to it again. Properly this time.”
    The giggling sounded again a moment later, and Erin didn’t know what she was meant to be listening for. Caitlin sighed and pulled herself out of her sleeping bag, unzipped the tent and then beckoned the other two to follow her.
    “I’m not going out there,” Craig said.
    Caitlin laughed again. “Come on! I promise it’s nothing. Just follow me.”
    She leaned down and grabbed a flashlight, and then led Erin and Craig towards the nearby stream before heading north alongside it. As they got closer and closer to where the waterfalls were supposed to be, the giggling subsided and became more of a gurgling sound.
    “See? It’s just the water gurgling up ahead,” Caitlin said. “Apophenia. Or more specifically, pareidolia.”
    “Apo-what now?” Erin asked.
    “Apophenia is when our brains make patterns in data that is meaningless or random. Pareidolia is a form of apophenia where our brains see or hear something that isn’t actually there because of its insistence on creating patterns. You hear the stream gurgling, and you don’t know what it is, so your brain tries to make sense of it. And you end up thinking you are hearing something else that isn’t there.”
    Caitlin paused and cleared her throat before continuing.
    “Like when you think you hear the phone ringing when you are showering. The sound of the running water produces a particular background pattern which makes your brain perceive a ringing sound. In this case, the gurgling water made you think it was laughing children.”
    “I suppose us already having been told that we might hear giggling children probably made it even worse,” Erin mused as her heart returned to its normal pace.
    “Yep, that’s exactly right. Kinda like when you tell someone to listen for something, and then they think they really do hear it, only because they’ve been told to.”
    Feeling much better now that they knew they weren’t in the midst of a real-life horror film, the group went back to the tent and got back into their sleeping bags. While Erin was no longer afraid, the nervous tension and adrenaline that had flooded through her veins had awoken