Advertisement
Please wait...

Marie Thibodeaux



Estimated reading time — 2 minutes

Marie Thibodeaux (1801-1881) was a remarkable woman. She was kind, intelligent, headstrong, and never once told a lie.

She was also a Voodoo High Priestess.

She lived her entire life in New Orleans, establishing a reputation from an early age as a potent healer and clairvoyant. People travelled for miles simply to visit her apothecary, although many more sampled her legendary concoctions. By the 1870’s, she had simultaneously become one of the most feared and revered figures in Louisiana.

In 1881, a landowner named Jacob Parrish travelled to New Orleans from Baton Rouge. Parrish was vastly wealthy and devoutly religious, but possessed a morbid fascination for the occult. He had hired a platoon of ex-soldiers from the recently concluded Civil War, and with them he marched down Bourbon Street and into Marie’s store.

Despite the protests of her assistants, Marie granted Parrish an audience. He had heard rumours that the great Voodoo Queen had discovered the secret to eternal life, and demanded that she yield it to him.

Never flustered, Marie corrected him: she had indeed discovered a ritual that would grant immortality, but only for a set period of time – fifty years, to be exact. Once performed, the subject would rise again after his natural death, having no need for food, air, or water, immune to disease, and utterly impervious to bodily harm. After fifty years had elapsed, however, the subject would die once more, never to rise again.

Advertisements

Frustrated by this revelation, Parrish nevertheless knew her by reputation to be an honest woman, and would not pass up the opportunity to live beyond his natural lifespan. Marie agreed to conduct the ritual for him, as long as he vowed to leave New Orleans permanently once it had been concluded. Parrish agreed, and the ritual was performed. True to his word, Parrish returned to Baton Rouge later that day – but not before ordering his mercenaries to murder Marie and her assistants and to burn her apothecary to the ground.

Louisiana folk are renowned for their superstitions, which are many and varied. It was unusual, however, that dozens would later swear that they had seen disembodied shadows making their way en masse up to the Parrish Manse that night. The following morning, the fifteen mercenaries were found with their necks snapped as though they had been twigs. Parrish himself was discovered in his bed, wide-eyed and apparently terror-stricken, his throat town out with such ferocity that the State Coroner was forced to conclude that a bear had somehow made its way into his locked, second-floor bedroom. The hints of black magic were not lost on locals, however, who promptly buried all sixteen bodies in Magnolia Cemetery the following day.

Marie Thibodeaux was a remarkable woman. She never told a lie, but that is not to say that she never withheld the truth. What she had not disclosed was that resurrection would not take place until seventy-two hours after death.

Advertisements
Advertisements

When Parrish’s grave was exhumed for relocation in 1953, puzzled excavators noted the singularly deep gouge marks found inside the coffin lid.

Credit To – September Derleth

Please wait...

Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.

18 thoughts on “Marie Thibodeaux”

  1. DefinitelyHuman

    Am I the only one who read that the ressurection takes place 72 hours after death and wondered if Jesus did the ritual?

  2. Christoffer Engevik

    I was expecting him to die, ressurect and then realize that he would be a ghost, unable to be seen or intereact with anyone. Unable to taste food, or feel anything but loneliness and desperation for 50 years.

  3. Great pasta! The only thing that bugged me was that surely in fifty years he could claw through the wood? He was immune to bodily harm for all that time.

  4. It’s late at night, and I’m seriously tired. But I don’t quite know what it means. Parrish knew that Marie had a longer lifespan, and he wanted it too. Marie granted him 50 years more after his first death, but after that, he couldn’t resurrect.

    Then I guess some shadows followed Parrish and killed him and his guards. So then? What about this bit? “That resurrection would not take place until 72 hours after death?” What does that have to do with his death?

    Anyways, I actually really liked the writing styles, and maybe I should re0read this when I’m feeling less tired. :P

  5. Ha, that bastard, got exactly what he deserved.

    Also, it’s nice to see a story where the strong female protagonist isn’t just a victim or villain. I mean, she’s a bit of both, but it’s still very refreshing not to see her as terrifying or pathetic.

  6. Oh cmon! This was golden! I always love a good voodoo priestess. Wish you went more in depth with her powers.

  7. There have been 20 votes cast with a 9.6 rating? Must be friends of the submitters. I would give this a 6 at best. The writing is immaculate, the premise is great, but it’s a cop-out. All set up, no middle, little end. Please re-visit this and think it through more thoroughly. Excellent potential but you dropped the ball.

  8. Really? 9.8/10 with 17 ratings? I mean this is good, especially for a micro pasta. But it’s not like it had anything particularly innovative about it. It was really well written but personally I don’t see how this deserves more than an 8 at most. Perhaps the author shared it on Facebook and all her friends and relatives caused the high rating.

  9. Nicely written, but you could have provided more details about Marie and her back story. I was really into the plot and I just kept reading on. Its a shame that it had to be so short.

    Pasta Score: 8/10

    Keep it up.

  10. September Derleth, hmm? That’s interesting.
    This pasta is well-written. It’s brief but informative, provides just the right amount of details, and despite not having a terrifying monster or dragging its feet for anticipation, holds interest.
    The little extra detail was a wonderful twist. I have asthma, so that kind of thing really chills me to the core.
    Wonderfully done, 10/10.

  11. You do a pretty good job writing short pastas, September. I’ve tried to write a shorter one before, and I failed miserably. It’s not an easy thing to creep people out in a short space. I’ve read a couple other things from you before (Seaweed and Touch), but this one is my favorite.

  12. I’ve heard stories like this before but I still enjoyed this one! Aside from a few spelling and grammar errors, it was an overall good story.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top