The first Kissing Chaos series by Arthur Dela Cruz was a hauntingly ambiguous story that kept the reader transfixed with strong personalities and a vague, ever-present tension. The second -- featuring different characters -- was a much clearer story of youth, love and rebellion. With this one-shot, Dela Cruz returns to the cast of the first series as well as to the ambiguity that characterized it. Am I entirely sure of what goes on in this story? Hell no, not even close, but I am drawn in by a character's delusions and the creator's hazy, beautiful artwork.
Having left behind their friend Raveyn, Damien and Angela are still on the run from the law, making their way through a desolate and arid landscape. Angela remains enveloped in a reverie in which she and Damien were in love, but something has changed. In her mind, the perceived relationship has begun to fall apart, apparently registering cues from the real world. Meanwhile, Damien has an appointment to keep, one that promises to free him from a life as a fugitive.
Dela Cruz's sketchy and inky artwork is the greatest strength of this one-shot. The settings are rather cinematic and iconic in nature. The classic diner, the roadside billboard... they serve as oddly familiar and universal backdrops that reinforce a sense of reality in the story, but the words splayed across them touch back upon the dream-like vagueness of the storytelling. Dela Cruz conveys Angela's youth and innocence quite clearly, as well as Damien's nerves.
Quite purposefully, the creator keeps the reader at arm's length, never completely clueing him or her in on what's happening here. The core plot involves Damien, Angela and some sort of exchange the latter is consciously unaware of, but it's not entirely clear who else is involved. The ambuiguity is both a strength and a liability.
Angela's narration reinforces that ambiguity, but it's also one of the book's greatest strengths. The purple prose doesn't suit someone of her tender age, and those flowery words are designed to put the reader ill at ease. Something's broken inside of her, and while we pity her, there's also a quiet sense of menace in the character. While Damien is somewhat frantic, she's slowly but surely moving down a dark path, and it's interesting to watch her progress, her descent.
