Chapter 2: Agnes

Peter was taken into the house. He wondered if they were going to kill him and him him into a pie. Mrs. McGreggor opened the door to a room. She opened a cage and placed him in, then locked the door. These bars were too narrow for him to get out, meaning he was trapped.

"Wait, come back! Don't leave me in here!" he pleaded. However, she paid him no heed and walked across the room, opened the door, and then closed it again. At first, he just thought he was going to be held in a cage, as a captive.

He soon tripped over something laying on the floor of the cage. With horror, he realized that it was an animal bone. With even more horror, he soon found that the cage was littered with them. Even more horrific, as he looked up, he saw a large, for the moment asleep, hawk, perched above him.

Upon seeing her, he panicked and began to bang on the cage bars, trying to break out. It didn't get him out, but it did succeed in awakening the hawk. "What's that?" she asked sleepily. Peter realized his mistake and froze, hoping to avoid her notice. However, the damage was already done. She quickly looked around the cage and spotted him. "What is this?" she asked herself.

"Please, don't eat me!" the young rabbit pleaded. "I'm too young to die." "You are rather young. Normally I eat adult rodents." "So don't eat me then. Please!" "That's the dilemma. How to avoid eating you." "What do you mean? If you don't want to eat me, then don't!" Peter cried in exasperation.

"If you were brought in here, it's clear that my masters intend for me to eat you." "Please don't! I'll do anything!" Peter cried hysterically. He couldn't die like this, being torn apart by a large hungry bird. His mother had been right, this place wasn't worth it. His mother! It looked like he would never see her again. "It's not that simple. If I don't eat you, then they'll punish me and kill you some other way anyway."

"Please! There's got to be some way I can avoid dying!"
"I don't see how. If I don't get you, they will."
"Please don't kill me! I'll do anything!" Peter tried prying open the cage, though he knew it would be no good. He couldn't just let the hawk devour him without at least making a, albeit futile, escape attempt.
"I don't see how..." the hawk mused aloud, "unless...hmmm...that might work." she said, deep in thought.
"What might work? I'll be willing to try anything that doesn't get me killed.
"Well, the idea I had still might get you killed, but there's a chance that you won't get killed either."
"How high of a chance that I won't get killed?"
"Hmmmm, I don't know, I've never done it before. I'd wager 50/50 I guess."
"Well, if it's the best you can come up with, let me hear your plan."
"I'm going to swallow you whole."
"Swallow me whole?! That will kill me!"
"Not necessarily."

"How would I survive then?" Peter didn't think there was any way he could survive inside a belly. It seemed a bad way to die, worse than being made into a pie or even torn apart by a hawk. "I'd drink plenty of water and you wouldn't be too digested in my stomachs."

"Stomachs? You have more than one?!"

"Yes, I have two, plus a crop."

"A crop?"

"Yes, it stores food."

The whole idea sounded quite awful to Peter. It seemed very likely to go wrong and, to be frank, it sounded like a cruel trick the hawk was hoping he'd fall for. "If this is going to be some kind of trick that allows you to kill me in your belly, then I won't let you. You'll have to tear me apart instead. How do I know I can ever trust you, whomever you are?"

"My name is Agnes. I normally kill anything that moves that comes into this cage. The fact that you're even alive still shows that I plan to spare you, whomever you are."

"I'm Peter Rabbit"

"Are you related to Mrs. Rabbit?"

Peter gasped in shock. "Yes, I am. She's my mother. How do you know her?"

"Never you mind. Are you going to go along with the plan or not?"

"I don't know. What is the plan anyway? Put me into your belly and hide me there forever? Seriously, how could that help?" If Agnes was playing games with him, he wasn't going to play along.

"Not exactly. You see, I am sometimes let out to stretch my wings. If they see you still here, they'd kill you. But they won't kill you if they don't see you, and I can take you out of the house."

Ok. Peter thought to himself. That's not such a bad plan. I mean, I might still be alive by the time they let her out.

"So let me get this straight, you want me to go into your belly, or one of them, and then when they let you out, you'll go barf me up."

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be barfing you up."

"So what, are you going to digest me then? If that was your plan, you shouldn't have told me it."

"I'm afraid I can't barf you up. I'd lose a couple of meals. They only let me out after dark and it's still morning."

"But how am i going to get out then?"

"The back door."

"The back door?" Peter's eyes moved immediately to a spot underneath her tail, to a pink and purple vent. "You mean I'm going to come out your butthole?!" he gasped, wondering if he heard right.

"It's actually called a cloaca. But, terms aside, yes you are, I'm afraid."

"Why do I have to be pooped out? It's not fair to me! I should be barfed out instead!"

"Listen here, Peter Rabbit, I'm already not going to get a breakfast meal, as they're assuming you'll be it. I won't kill you so I won't get any food from you. There's no way I'm going to give up a full day of meals to "less inconvenience" a little rabbit that I've never met before today. The fact that I'm even giving you this option shows how lucky you are."

"Lucky?!" Peter bleched. He couldn't see anything lucky about coming out a butt, or, as Agnes called it, a cloaca.

"Yes, it's your only chance I'm giving you at survival, and you're the first one to come into my cage who might survive at all."

Peter thought on this a moment. The whole thing, being in a belly, being covered in bird poop, and finally being pooped out a butt sounded awful, but maybe it was his only chance to live. "How do I know I can trust you. I mean, you could swallow me, drink no water, digest me alive, and then poop out my bones."

"You're right. I could if I wanted to. You're just going to have to trust me. After all, the way I see it, you have no other choice if you want to live. So will you accept my offer?"

Peter thought. She was right. He had no hope of fighting her, and he had no reason to doubt that the McGreggors would kill him if they came back and found him still alive in the cage. "All right. I guess I have no choice."