Steps to Madness

Books

Present Time

"Ugh! It could be anywhere!" Dean exclaimed, scanning another bookshelf.
Cas suddenly snapped his fingers and a book flew off a shelf and hovered in front of it. The shelf was some ways away from Dean.
Dean scoffed. "I was getting to that one."
Castiel just chuckled softly. "Yeah okay."
Dean walked over to the book, taking it out of the air. "Shut up bird brain." He walked over to Sam, placing it in front of him.
Sam looked up from his laptop, taking the book and paging through it. "So this is the one?"
Dean nodded. "Sure is." Sam sighed, stopping on a random page. On it was a wolf. A very familiar wolf.

Last Night

Sam was in the middle of the forest. A wolf was chasing him, weaving though the trees that seemed endless. As the two were running, the wolf suddenly jumped at him. It didn't even make it half way to him before something flew from the ground, hitting the wolf soaring into the air. Sam gasped and scurried backwards, away from it. But his fear soon turned into wonder. It was a vine. A giant vine. That had grew in just seconds. In fact, he wasn't even sure if it grew or manifested. This vine was obviously not a normal vine, besides its giant stature and enormous width it swung in the air viciously. Much like a snake, or the more Sam thought about it, one of those wacky wavy inflatable tube man things. He stood there, confused as all get out until he noticed it started to sink into the ground. Swiftly, he climbed a tree. There was no way that vine was taking him wherever it was going. Suddenly, and very quickly, the entire vine practically flew down into the ground. Sam could only watch with half horror half amazement.
"What in the world?" The forest floor looked exactly how it did before. Nothing was disturbed except for the faint cawing of vultures circling above the forest a bit aways from where Sam was. Everything was silent. In fact, this made him quite uncomfortable. His pulse started to quicken. In Sam's experience, silence was never good.
"Waiting for something?" A voice sounded behind Sam, he turned around, looking this way and that.
"Who are you?" He called, looking for the stranger.
They laughed. "Look up."
Sam looked. There was the gardener. Swinging softly as the wind swung the trees branches. They seemed to weigh nothing.
"Remember me?"
Sam creased his eyebrows and shook his head.
"I don't think-" He froze, realizing it.
"You're the gardener! In my brothers dream he met a gardener. He met you!"
The gardener laughed again and jumped from the tree onto the soft green grass, bowing deeply. "I'm flattered that he told you. Yes I am the gardener. Now, hurry. Anything you wish to know before I wake you up from your dream?"
Sam didn't skip a beat. "Lilian. Is she okay?"
The gardener smiled. "I assure you. She is safe now."

Sam woke up drenched in sweat, but had some how obtained a faint smile on his face.

                         Present time

Sam's eyes narrowed as he looked at it he decided to read some of the writing that accompanied the picture.

"Wolves of this kind often travel through dark forests and sometimes abandoned buildings. They prey on meat of any kind, living or dead. If you should see one, run. For they don't usually let themselves be seen unless if there's a reason behind it. Many people have reported seeing them in their dreams, but we do not have enough steady information to figure out what it means..."

Sam sighed and started turning the pages until the number at the bottom said 164. Of course it was useless, why did Sam even expect to get anywhere with this book's small bits of information and lack of sources. Well, he would like to find out what that whole thing meant... But whatever.
"Sam?"
He looked up at Dean. "Yeah?"
Dean was watching him, slightly suspicious. "You doing okay?"
Sam nodded. "It was just a dream."
Castiel and Dean both looked at Sam before sharing a look. Sam watched them do this.
"You guys had dreams to didn't you?"
Dean just nodded.
Castiel shifted so he was standing upright instead of leaning on the bookshelves. "It seems..." He said, "that something strange is happening."
Dean nodded again. "Yeah, but it's only been happening in droves. When we first lost Lilian they-"
They all stopped.
"Sam... your dream... is there anything we should know about?" Castiel inquired.
Sam nodded. "Well..." He sighed. "Dean, the gardener. She was there,"
Dean seemed to have a reaction to this.
"She saved me. Told me Lilian was okay."
Everyone had a blank expression.
Jack's note started sizzling as it burned.

This gardener of that which you speak... is her description perhaps unique?

Dean sighed. "She wears this long cloak, never shows her face, always acts calm. I think she's more like a kid too..."

Her story and mine are in fact intertwined. I've seen her under a star, though in truth, we're both very far.

"You've had a dream of her too?"

It is the truth.

Everyone looked at each other. Dean watched through the corner of his eyes. "Somethings going on."
Castiel silently agreed. "The question is... is it good, or is it bad."

A book suddenly fell off a shelf several feet away from the team, making them all jump at the quite loud sound. Everything stood still, before slowly, Sam went to retrieve it. It seemed... familiar. Why yes, this was the book Lilian read the first day they got here, he could have sworn! He crouched down and picked up the book, turning it around to the front. His eyes became wide. The cover, as clear as day, read:

Find Those Who Are Distant; Simple Searching Spells