Once You Leave

- Season 1

(2011)

After a 27 month stay in Niger (for the Peace Corp), Kayla heads home to Texas. She says goodbye to her African friends and then boards the plane. The quiet hum of the airplane cabin sends Kayla into a slumber. She dreams of haunting images from the past and a foreshadowing of the future. She wakes to a city she no longer knows but remains hopeful for her only plan, Rachel. Episode 1.00 is a one-issue comic book presented as a MOTION COMIC, INTERACTIVE WEB COMIC and a DIGITAL COMIC and is a prequel to the Once You Leave series.

Kayla returns home, after two years, to a defective situation. Her alcoholic mother, the root of this dysfunction only complicates matters. And most of Kayla's high school/college friends are nowhere to be found. But luckily Kayla has a plan, even if there is a small hitch...

Kayla's plans are altered when she discovers that her best friend, Rachel has moved to Salado for work. So Kayla hits the road (in her mom's car) to set things right and hopefully repair their fragile relationship. Upon reaching Salado she meets Rachel's employers, John and Mary Anderson. Unfortunately they have some bad news and everything changes...

Kayla wakes in Rachel's room, in Rachel's bed. She stares deeply at a picture of Rachel but Rachel is... Hopeless and alone Kayla contemplates her next move. All seems lost... but then comes Awenasa, a Native American Indian drifter. They disappear into the woods together. Intoxicated by the dancing flame and Awenasa's psychotropics, Kayla begins her transformation.

Where do you go when the road has run out? Without a destination, Kayla's journey begins. The peace of the road encourages reflection. However the constant painful reminders of a once hopeful reunion with Rachel now haunt Kayla's every thought. What was Rachel trying to say in her last bits of communication? Will Rachel's little brother, Jon-Michael have the answers?

A storm hits, interrupting Kayla's journey. She decides to wait it out by holding up in the back of her (mom's) car. Boredom soon sets in so Kayla decides to dig into her past. She watches video from her time in the Peace Corp with her pal Tunde. But Tunde's lighthearted demeanor soon turns dark as he vents his frustrations and worries.This doesn't help Kayla's sullen mood, for Tunde turns the camera and spotlight on her causing her to come clean with her feelings. From the banter back-and-forth with Tunde in the video, Kayla remembers the link she found on ...

A love story comes to an end... but the journey must go on for "the road is life." Drifting along backroads, Kayla hums a simple tune... then comes Abby and Camden, a single mom and her child with some car trouble. Kayla agrees to give them a ride not realizing she's agreeing to far more. Abby and Camden are on the run and it's reaching the breaking point.

Kayla wakes after a rough night; how did she get here? She's all alone and the last bit of her money is gone but luckily she lands a job as a dishwasher. Curiosity sends her out back one day where she meets Ben, the cook. They share a cigarette. These two damaged creatures are on similar paths, one hiding from the past and the other running from the present. But when Ben finally reveals his story, Kayla hears just how dark the hearts of men can become and it changes her, forever.

It's a new day... Kayla travels the back roads in her mom's (now reported stolen) car. She has a little wad of cash from her buddy Ben and she's headed to find her estranged father. A stop off at a laundromat proves to be a horrible mistake. But out of the darkness, the animals come to play...

Now on foot, with no money and only a few of her belongings Kayla is forced to continue her journey. Alone...

It's 11:25 pm. Kayla paces around her motel room. A knock on the door changes everything. And the truth is finally revealed...

Kayla finally commits to seeking out her estranged father. Along the way she stops off at a lake cove to reflect upon all that has happened on her journey. Her personal demons are confronted, head on...

In the meditative conclusion to Once You Leave, Kayla realizes that her destination was the journey, the journey of finding herself, finding her way home. It all ends with a whisper...