Work Text:
It's no secret to Colt Seavers' friends that he isn't terribly fond of Tom Ryder, the up-and-coming actor who's now filming his second movie with Colt.
He has a few reasons for this.
First, Tom has no respect for the people who works with him. The stunt workers, the staff members - he seems to perceive them as working for him, not with him. Colt can't imagine how bad he would be if he becomes a big name - he's already bad enough as a small time actor.
Tom also insists on behaving as though everyone around him is a moron. Ironic, when Colt has worked with smarter animal actors.
And even if you excuse his personality, his work ethic is terrible - from being late to shoots to calling the stunt director a moron for insisting on pausing the shooting for safety checks.
None of these things have helped endear Tom Ryder to Colt Seavers. But there was one incident that really took the cake.
"You're a twin?"
Colt looked up from the water cooler. It was Tom Ryder.
"…Yes?" he answered. "Who told you?"
"Jenny," said Tom, waving his hands dismissively. "He looks just like you?"
No Jennies on this set. He must have meant Jessie, one of the makeup artists. She liked to small talk.
"Identical twins, yeah," said Colt, finishing filling up his water bottle.
"Like looking at a mirror."
"Well, he wears glasses."
"Glasses," said Tom. He gave Colt a once-over. "…Yeah. That might improve things. Cover up your whole-" he gestured vaguely at Colt's entire face.
Typical Tom. "Sure," said Colt, ready to leave.
"Hey, listen, listen," said Tom. "Have you two ever…" he made a vague hand gesture.
"…What?" Colt didn't get it.
"You know," said Tom. He exaggerated the gesture.
Colt suddenly got it.
"What?!"
"Still don't get it? God, you stunties really have muscles for brains, don't you?" said Tom, rolling his eyes. He stepped closer to Colt. "Have. You. Two. Ever. Threesomed."
What the fuck. "No?!"
"No?" said Tom. To Colt's shock, he looked interested. "Saving it for someone special?"
I can't pick a fight with the second lead actor of the movie, Colt told himself. I cannot punch him in the face. They need that face for the movie.
"Uh, I hear someone calling," he managed to say before quickly leaving the scene.
Colt had met a lot of weird people over his short career in film, but no interaction has ever left him feeling so off-kilter as this one.
It's why he is currently taking great care to keep his twin brother Ryland away from Tom Ryder during his visit. The thought of that asshole actually seeing Ryland in person doesn't sit well with him.
Aside from that small concern, it's great having Ryland nearby.
Since this is summer, Ryland is on unpaid vacation for two whole months. Colt hadn't really been around to help him out when he'd been going through rough times after that one conference, having been busy with work, so he's more than happy to let him mooch off him for two months.
Ryland is on set practically every day. At first, he'd mostly kept to himself, reading a book or crocheting quietly among the stunt crew until it was Colt's scene. This was pretty much what both of them had expected to happen - Ryland isn't really the type to go out of his way to make friends.
To Colt's surprise, though, lately Ryland seems to have made friends.
Admittedly, most of them are children.
These days, Colt often sees him animatedly talking to the kids of the stunt crew, sharing fun science facts and whatnot.
Colt still remembers listening to Ryland go on and on and on about the fungi lifecycle in middle school until he quite literally had to beg him to please stop. Apparently his communication skills have improved since then, because the kids all seem to be having fun. Enough for a bunch of kids to voluntarily learn science facts, anyway.
Well, kids and one adult. These days, their newest stunt driver can also often be found near Ryland, listening in rapt attention to his improvised lessons.
Colt doesn't know the guy very well. He mostly seems to keep to himself.
To be honest, Colt doesn't even know the guy's name. He's yet to hear anyone refer to the man by any name. In his head, he just calls the guy 'Driver'.
Maybe this is not ideal, considering how they'd been working together for weeks and even filming the same scenes.
In his defence, he isn't as bad as Ryland.
"You don't know either?" said Colt, taken aback. "You've been hanging out with him for weeks!"
"Well, nobody calls him by name!" said Ryland. "What do you call him?"
Colt didn't. "I just think of him as Driver. Because he's the other driver than me."
"I've been thinking of him as Casey," confessed Ryland.
Colt stared.
"You named him?"
"I had to call him something inside my head!"
"You gave him a whole name inside your head because you couldn't just ask him?"
"You're telling me that?" said Ryland. "I'm just a guy who he comes to watch say funny things sometimes, you know, when he's bored or something! You work with him!"
"It's not like they're filming us talking to each other!" said Colt. "We drive! In separate cars! Chasing each other! And crashing! Not a lot of time for exchanging names!"
Ever since that conversation, it's become a whole thing. Now Ryland stubbornly refers to the guy as Casey while Colt stubbornly refers to him as Driver. Neither of them have ventured to ask him.
Colt figures that in a year or two, he might be on the set with the guy again, this time with Dan or Jody, and then he could just ask them and all will be well. Right?
It's not like he's ever gonna have a reason to talk to the guy outside of work.
For the first few weeks of shooting, that's about the extent of Colt's worries.
One evening, the stunt team all go out for a drink, as they often do. Colt stays behind - they're showing the original 'The Thing from the Abyss' on TV tonight, and he wants to watch with Ryland.
He's alone in the stunt trailer when someone barges in without knocking. Colt raises his head from the sofa where he's been trying to take a nap.
It's Tom. He's looking around, drunk and confused.
"Wrong trailer," Colt tells him. This has happened a few times when Tom got drunk. At least, once he becomes a big name action star, he won't be mistaking other people's trailers for his anymore.
"What?" says Tom. He sees Colt. "Huh? Is this the stunt trailer?"
"Yeah?"
"Huh," says Tom. Then he frowns, as if seeing Colt for the first time. "Wait. Wait. I had something to say to you."
"Okay," says Colt, giving up on the nap. He sits up. "What is it?"
"Why didn't you tell me he's here?"
"Who?"
"Ryan," says Tom. He's standing in front of Colt now, arms folded. "With the glasses?"
"Who- Ryland?" God damn it! "You saw him?"
"He's pretty hot. Better than you, anyway," says Tom. "Dumber than he looks though. Didn't understand a word of what I was telling him." He clicks his tongue.
In that moment, Colt's whole world goes white.
Because - what could Tom have said to Ryland that Ryland either didn't understand, or worse, had to pretend he didn't?
"He, uh," says Colt because he cannot think of anything to say that won't betray his true feelings. I can't punch him in the face. I can't beat up the second lead actor of the movie. "He's got a PhD."
"A what?"
"A doctorate- never mind," says Colt. He tries to subtly take a deep breath.
Okay. Ryland was supposed to come meet him at this trailer. He could arrive any minute. His priority should be getting this asshole away from here.
"Look, you're going to be shooting all day tomorrow, right? Why don't you go rest in your trailer?"
"My trailer, right," says Tom. "Hey, can you tell your brother where my trailer is? I kept trying to tell him but he didn't seem to get it."
Fucking hell.
"Sure, yeah," says Colt, lightly grabbing Tom by the arm to try and lead him out of the trailer. Ryland already knew where Tom's trailer was - Colt had warned him about it the very first day. "Go get some rest, Tom."
"Touchy, touchy," says Tom. "If he keeps not getting it, you can just bring him yourself. He'll get it once we get to-"
"Alright, Tom," says Colt, suddenly no longer able to hold it in. He shoves Tom by the arm where he'd been grabbing him. "You know you can't just tell people to bring-"
Tom stumbles. Before Colt can do anything, he loses his footing and falls backwards.
There's a loud thud.
"Uh," says Colt. "Tom?"
Tom is silent.
Colt kneels down next to Tom. He puts his finger on his neck.
Nothing.
He puts his finger under his nose.
Nothing.
No. No. What the fuck? No-
"Colt! Hey! I'm here!" says Ryland's voice outside the trailer door. "I hope it's okay I brought someone! He's never watched The Thing from the Abyss before either, so I thought we could watch together? Anyway- we're coming in!"
"This isn't what it looks like," is the first thing Colt says.
It's a familiar line. He probably saw it in a movie somewhere.
"Uh, what what looks like?" says Ryland. "Is that Tom Ryder? Is he drunk?"
Following after Ryland, another person enters the stunt trailer. Driver takes one look at the body and asks, "Is he dead?"
"Haha, what?" says Ryland, just as Colt shudders and opens his mouth. "Yeah."
Ryland makes a strange noise. "What-"
"You didn't do it," says Driver. Colt nods.
Then he pauses.
Because - didn't he do it?
He'd shoved him, hadn't he?
"What happened?!" cries Ryland. "Colt! Did he fall on his own?"
"No, I, " begins Colt. "He- he came in, and said some stupid things, you know how he says stupid things, right?"
"Yes," says Driver.
"And- and then I pushed him, and he-" Colt shudders again. "He fell and died."
"Oh god." Ryland collapses onto the floor. "Oh god."
"I pushed him," repeats Colt. He thinks he's in shock, maybe. "I pushed him-"
"Nobody- nobody saw you push him, though, right?" says Ryland suddenly.
"Well, yeah, Ry, because nobody else was here!" cries Colt. "How does that change anything?"
"What if I got here five minutes earlier," says Ryland. "And I saw you- talk with him, and, I saw him trip over the coffee table and fall down-"
"You're going to lie to the cops?" says Colt, taken aback. "To the court?"
"I'm not letting you go to prison just because you pushed a guy!" cries Ryland. "What was he even doing here?"
"He opened the wrong trailer door, he does it all the time!" Does. Did.
"Why didn't you just let him say his stupid things?" says Ryland desperately. "You're the one who told me to ignore him! What did he even say?"
There's no way Colt is telling him what they talked about.
For a moment, the trailer is silent.
"I'm doing it," says Ryland. "I got here five minutes earlier. I-"
Wait. But he isn't the only person who saw Colt with the body.
Ryland seems to remember the same thing. "H-hey," he says to Driver, raising his head to look up at him. (Even in this situation, a part of Colt thinks, so you spent one more day with the guy without asking for his name, huh?)
"This, this is pretty ridiculous to you, too, right?" continues Ryland. "I mean, all Colt did was push the guy. And now he's going to be in prison for, I don't know, for a long time."
"Ten years," says Driver. "For involuntary manslaughter."
And that's if we can prove it was involuntary, Colt silently completes the line. He'd seen it in a movie he'd recently watched with Jody. 'Triple Indemnity'.
"R-right," says Ryland. He sounds like he's about to cry. "I can't- that's-'
"Fifteen years," adds Driver. "For perjury."
"Wha- it's longer?!" cries Colt despite himself. "Lying is more evil than murder?"
"Involuntary murder!"
"You won't get out clean that way," says Driver. "You need to get rid of the evidence."
Huh?
"What evidence?" says Colt. "It's not like I stabbed him to death. The only evidence this happened is his dead body."
Driver gives him a look.
Colt thinks back to what he said.
Oh my god, he thinks. Is he crazy?
"Oh my god," says Ryland. "Are you crazy? That's insane. Oh my god. Oh my god. I. I guess we could?"
What?
"I mean. We. We just need enough acid to melt the whole body," continues Ryland, seemingly staring into nothing as Colt watches him with his mouth hanging open. "Right? Couldn't that work? Assuming 1:1 ratio- no, wait, it would get diluted, since the human body is sixty percent water-"
…Ryland, what the fuck?
"No need to go that far," says Driver. "You just need to bury him."
That seems to break Ryland out of his state.
"…Oh."
"I know a place," adds Driver. He claps Ryland on the shoulder. "I'll drive."
But first, they have to move the body to the car.
For all his crazy talk about melting the body, Ryland gets squeamish when he has to actually grab it. So it's Colt and Driver who move it.
To be safe, they first find a crate of an appropriate size - a dime a dozen in this particular set - and put the body in the crate before moving it to the car.
"You two, get in the back seat," says Driver after they put the crate inside the car. "You can talk, but make sure you can hear me. Every time I see a camera, I'll tell you to duck. Once I say that, you duck immediately. Do you understand?"
…Okay. So this guy is clearly experienced in this sort of thing. Being on the other side of the law. Maybe even murdered a guy or two himself.
All this should maybe worry Colt. But right now, Driver's the only one who seems to know what he's doing.
He quietly gets in the back seat with Ryland.
They drive silently.
At least… for a moment.
"Hey, so, uh," says Ryland. Colt recognizes the signs - Ryland's always been a nervous talker. "This is your car, right?"
There's a pause, as if Driver hadn't expected either of them to be talking to him. "It is."
"It's nice," says Ryland. "Not that I know anything about cars. But this is a good model, right?"
"It's the most common one," says Driver.
"Oh," says Ryland. "Well, uh, it still feels nice to me. The seats are soft. And the engines run really smoothly. I think. That's a thing, right?"
"It is."
"I think I'd have enjoyed it," says Ryland. "If you, you know, took me out for a drive. Like you said you could, when we both have time."
"I'd have used a different car for that."
"Oh."
"Hey," interrupts Colt. "Listen, uh, is there any chance you might drive a little bit faster?"
"No," says Driver. "We're not being chased. We need to blend in."
"Oh."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Right," says Colt, abashed. It's not like he knows what he's doing. All he knows is what he's seen in the movies.
They drive.
Colt's phone rings, startling everyone.
Colt hurriedly takes it out of his pocket.
It's Jody.
Colt stares down at the phone in horror.
"Shouldn't you take the call?" hisses Ryland. "Act normal?"
"I can't talk to her like this!" Colt hisses back. "I killed someone!"
"Involuntarily!"
"You talk to her," demands Colt, handing over the phone to Ryland. "You, be me, and talk to her."
"What? No!" cries Ryland. "I haven't done that in years! I can't-"
His thumb accidentally presses the 'Accept Call' button.
For a second, they both freeze. Then Ryland hurriedly picks up the phone.
"Hey, Jody," he says, sounding exactly like Colt. "…Oh, the movie streaming? Yeah, yeah, of course we're still on for tomorrow. Why wouldn't we be? I-"
A pause.
"No?" says Ryland, sounding pinched. "I don't know what you mean-"
Okay, the jig is up. Colt sighs and wordlessly reaches his arm towards Ryland.
"…Alright, you got me. I'll let him talk to you," says Ryland before giving him the phone.
"Hey, Jody!" says Colt. "Sorry about that, I was, uh, taking care of some urgent business."
"Oh?" says Jody. "Like what?"
"Washing my hair?" says Colt. "That's the only thing I do in the bathroom, you know. Shower and wash my hair. Anything else you might have heard is a slander on my good name."
He winces at his own words. What good name?
"Really?" says Jody. "A little birdie told me that you also like to shave in there."
"Never," says Colt. "Who told you that?"
Then it suddenly occurs to him.
Why not tell Jody?
Not directly, of course. He could never. Not in a million years. But isn't Jody smart? Isn't it possible she'd see something he didn't?
"Hey," he begins. "Scenario time. You ready?"
"Hit me," says Jody immediately, always game for scenario time.
"So, hypothetically speaking, if you saw me committing a murder, what would you do?"
From next to him, Ryland stares at him in shock. Colt ignores him as he waits for Jody to answer.
"Murder? You?" says Jody. She laughs. "Give me a more realistic scenario, would you? I mean, you wouldn't even let me kill a cockroach."
Colt tries to laugh normally. He doesn't know if he succeeded. "Hypothetically."
"Hypothetically," repeats Jody. "Well. I guess I'd have no other choice but to marry you."
For a moment, all Colt can hear is his own heartbeat. "Obviously," he manages.
"Right," agrees Jody. "Can't let me testify against you if I do that."
"Right," agrees Colt. "Like in Triple Indemnity."
"Exactly," says Jody. "Okay, so we're still on for tomorrow, right? 9PM your time."
Colt agrees and finishes the call.
As soon as he does, Ryland is all but shouting at his face. "Why would you say that?!"
"Thought she might have some ideas."
Ryland hesitates. "Did she?"
"Ry," says Colt, feeling lightheaded. "How do you feel about getting married to 'Casey'?"
The car seems to suddenly accelerate for a moment. Colt glances at the front window but can't tell if anything is wrong. Maybe it was yellow light or something.
"I," says Ryland. "What? What. I. What?"
"Wait, no, that's not right," says Colt. "I have to marry him. Isn't that how that works?"
Understanding visibly dawns on Ryland's face.
"Nobody is getting married to anybody," he declares. "…Unless anyone wants to. Later. But not now. No marriages! We're going to get you out of this! Alright?"
I don't know, is this alright? Colt wants to ask. Maybe this is all wrong, maybe he should have persuaded Ryland a bit harder. He didn't want to drag Ryland down with him, but isn't he getting him involved in deeper shit?
"Ry," he begins. "I don't know if-"
"Duck."
They duck.
They arrive at the place.
It's a mountain, as it turns out. A small forest mountain.
Driver leads the way, holding the shovels they took from the set, with Colt and Ryland following him while carrying the crate.
At some point, Driver stops them. "Here," he declares.
Colt looks around. It looks the same as any other spot in the forest to him. But maybe that's the point.
"…Alright," says Ryland. "I guess now we dig."
They dig.
It takes a while. Neither Colt nor Ryland wants to open the crate, so by unspoken agreement they decide to bury the whole thing. Which means the hole needs to be fairly large.
But in the end, they get it done.
"…Okay," says Ryland. "I'll go look around and see if it looks weird from the distance."
He takes off.
For a moment, Colt and Driver sit together in silence.
Eventually Colt decides to break the silence.
"Hey," he begins. "…Thanks. You didn't have to help."
"No problem," says Driver. "A body is hell to clean up."
Colt pauses.
Didn't that line sound familiar? Hadn't he heard it before somewhere? From a movie, or something? From-
Hold on.
"Triple Indemnity?"
Driver freezes.
A terrible suspicion dawns on Colt. Didn't that movie have a subplot where -
"Tell me you didn't get the idea to bury the body from Triple Indemnity," he says in a shaky voice.
Even in the dark, Driver looks pinched. He doesn't say anything.
"Oh my god," says Colt. "Oh my fucking god."
This guy is also getting all his ideas from movies!
"What was all that stuff in the car?" demands Colt. "You said you know what you're doing!"
"I know how to drive," says Driver.
But not how to get cleared of a murder suspicion, translates Colt inside his head. He buries his face in his palms.
This guy has no idea what he's doing after all!
Colt fell for his confident attitude - which, how stupid is he? The man is a stunt driver! Of course he can fake a confident attitude!
"Oh my god," he says once again.
"The police don't take missing person cases seriously," says Driver.
"The Runaway Boys," guesses Colt immediately.
Driver is silent after that.
"Okay, I looked around and I think everything looks fine!" says Ryland, returning to the two of them. "Good work, guys! All clear now!"
The drive back is grim.
I shouldn't have done this, thinks Colt with sudden clarity. I should have turned myself in.
Yes, he might have had a hard time proving that it had been involuntary. But at least he wouldn't be doubting what he was doing every step of the way.
But what now? They already buried the body. How can he confess to what he did now and be taken seriously?
Besides, if he turns himself in now, Ryland and Driver will be treated as accomplices.
God. God. God.
Colt's phone rings, once again startling everyone.
Colt looks at the screen and almost curses out loud. It's Gail - the producer who recently took an interest in Tom Ryder.
He takes the call.
"Have you seen him?" says Gail immediately. "Tom, I mean."
Colt has the sudden urge to confess to everything there and then.
"Not really," he says instead. "Last I saw, he seemed to be getting drunk."
"Hmm," says Gail, sounding unhappy. "Probably sleeping like the dead somewhere."
Colt snorts despite himself. It's just so horrible that he can't help but laugh.
"It's true, he sleeps like the dead when he's drunk," continues Gail. "It's uncanny. His breathing is so shallow that you can barely even feel it. And that damn neck patch thing he started wearing! I couldn't even feel his pulse, the first time I saw him like that. I really thought he'd died! Can you imagine?"
"I," says Colt weakly. "…Yeah, I can imagine."
Ryland writes down numbers with his finger on the fogged-up car window.
"He should have about three and a half hours of air in that crate," he declares.
Three and a half hours. Colt looks at his watch. They'd be cutting it close. "Look, can you-"
Before he finishes the sentence, Driver speeds up.
By the time they arrive back at the mountain, the sun has set completely. Thankfully Driver seems to know the area well and leads them without hesitation.
To Colt's immense relief, when they arrive at the area, they hear a muffled scream.
They quickly dig out the crate.
"What the hell is this?" demands Tom Ryder. "Why am I inside a- a fucking box- "
"Near-death experience," says Driver.
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
"You wanted the experience of dying," says Driver. "So that you could act it better."
The Curious Case of the Prince of Denmark, recognizes Colt. Sometimes one wants the experience of dying, so that one can act it better.
"That's how you put it," he adds helpfully, just in case Tom also saw the movie. "Very admirable, I thought."
Miraculously, Tom buys it.
They climb down the mountain, Tom complaining about sore muscles all the way. Driver leads the way, with Colt helping Tom, and Ryland walking beside them.
They're about halfway down when Ryland suddenly yelps.
"Ry?" says Colt, startled. "What is it?"
"Something touched me!" answers Ryland. "Wait, it wasn't you, right?"
"God, what are you, an idiot?" says Tom, sounding exasperated. "It was me!"
What?
Colt sees red. "You-"
"Wait, do you two touch each other a lot?" says Tom. "Oh, that's-"
Three things happen at once.
First, Colt lets go of Tom.
Second, Ryland shoves Tom away.
Third, Driver - without even looking back at them - gives Tom a sharp kick in the legs.
With all these things combined, Tom loses his footing. Before Colt or anyone can think to do anything, he stumbles a few steps to the side, until he slips and falls.
They all watch as Tom Ryder tumbles and rolls down the decline until he hits a large rock.
There's a loud crack. Ryland lets out a whimper.
Tom's body lies at the bottom, unmoving.
As they hurry down towards the body, a voice that sounds a lot like Jody rings inside Colt's head:
Alright, everyone. Let's do one more take!