- A woman, stalked by a living terror from her distant past. A man, utterly consumed by his desire for vengeance. A house, decrepit and abandoned, save for its single monstrous inhabitant. The worlds in which these scenarios reside may differ, but all can be reached through the pages of Ben Crofton’s debut anthology: Hiding in the Dark- Ben Crofton is a lifelong Chicago suburban native, and has been an avid writer since high school. What attracts Ben to horror? Mainly the fact that he has always found the genre to be highly entertaining. That is, after all, the whole reason Ben writes - for the enjoyment and entertainment of others (and also because of fact that if he didn't write, he'd probably lose his mind). In his spare time, Ben enjoys spending time with his family, working out, gardening, random home-improvement projects, gaming, reading, listening to (and, to a lesser extent, writing) music, volunteerism, and a host of other mismatched and potentially confounding activities- The woods surrounding Lucile’s cabin were as terrible as they were beautiful. During the day they shined with the resplendence and vitality of nature, but at night they grew sullen, brooding, and were full of a sentient malevolence that Lucile could not explain. At first, she’d fought with herself about whether or not to sell the cabin. It sat secluded at the foot of a giant hill near the edge of town, enveloped by the woods that covered the land for miles. Only a small moat of prairie grass and a narrow gravel driveway broke the monotony of the trees, features that Lucile had loved in happier times. Now, things were different. Earnest was gone, and the woods were not the same. Nevertheless, the cabin was an ideal place for her to live out the last years of her life, and Lucile knew that she’d never work up the resolve to sell it anyway. It was special to her - it had been her and Earnest’s weekend getaway, and the thought of some stranger living there was almost more than she could bear.After his death, she’d sold the condo they had shared in the city, intent on settling down to a quieter, simpler life. Out here, she could go days without seeing another human being. Only rarely did anyone venture beyond the boundaries of the nearby town, and she was only forced to go there when in need of groceries or other necessities. Her only problem was the fear. It came with the dusk, creeping with the shadows that moved slowly across the hardwood floors of the cabin, working its way into her mind like a  hungry parasite. At sunset, her routine was always the same: every curtain on every window was drawn, every door locked. She’d take a glass of water and two pieces of dry toast up to her room, where she’d lock her bedroom door behind her. She would stay there until sunrise, and no matter what noises carried across the stillness of the night air, she would not allow herself to look out of the windows until the light of morning. She supposed that she was just being foolish, and that the fear merely stemmed from one terrible memory. But it’s over. That happened a long time ago. She stared at the TV for a moment longer before picking up the remote and switching it off. The Five O’clock News was on, which meant that the sun would set in a couple of hours. She cooked a light dinner for herself, which she ate at a small wooden table that sat out on the deck. As she chewed her food she thought of her husband. The loss still stung after all those years, as she supposed it would for the rest of her life. As she gazed into the woods, she wished that he were there with her. The woods always reminded her of Earnest; he had loved them so much. He’d been an outdoor enthusiast, hunting and fishing until the day his arthritis had gotten so painful that he could barely walk on his own. He had been miserable the last few years, not because of the pain, but because he could no longer do the things that he loved. Seeing him like that had always hurt Lucile more than anyone could have imagined. She finished her last bite and sat back, allowing the food to digest. Her eyes continued to take in the forest, and she smiled. For the time being, she felt no fear. At that moment, the woods were to her what they had been when Earnest was still alive – peaceful and beautiful.