There was a low pressure weather front parked over Seattle, dumping bucket -fulls of rain and blowing a bone numbing wind from Alaska.

The roads were covered in a layer of murky water and gasoline as we stood shivering under an exposed bus stop in Lake City trying to avoid the splash back of the vehicles on the highway.

We'd only been in the city for about two months and were waiting to catch a bus across town to our apartment in Phinney Ridge.

The evening was closing in when the number 75 arrived. It was 20 minutes late.

We got on and sat towards the back of the half empty bus , tired but relieved.

Condensation trickled down the steamy windows as I wiped the cold glass to get a better view of our surroundings.

We hugged each other , glad to be on our way home to our new flat when I suddenly noticed a man few seats down.

He seemed be talking to himself as he ran dirty looking hands through his long dirty blond hair . His eyes glazed and unfocussed stared out of the window, a stained lumberjack coat heaved up around his unshaven chin.

Then he reached down and grabbed a duffle bag from between his legs and rummaged around before pulling out a black gun from inside.

At first he just kind of ran his fingers across it and then he polished it with a sleeve.

He pushed the barrel against the window and started aiming it at the cars passing by.

Everyone else on the bus was in front of him except for us.

They were oblivious to the fact that a madman was sitting a few feet behind their heads waving a weapon about.

I was just praying that he wouldn't look over towards us.

He turned around and grinned a toothless smile as if reading my mind!

He started pressing an imaginary trigger making a ' firing ' sound with his mouth.

to be continued